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FOLK TALES OF INDIA
Other volumes in the series
Folk Tales of Andhra Pradesh by B.R. Raju
Folk Tales of Assam by Mira Pakrasi
Folk Tales of Bengal by Geeta Majumdar
Folk Tales of Bihar by Mira Pakrasi
Folk Tales of Gujarat by Tara Bose
Folk Tales of Haryana by Chaudhury & Srivastava
Folk Tales of Himachal Pradesh by K.A. Seethalakshmi
Folk Tales of Kashmir by Bani Roy Chaudhury
Folk Tales of Karnataka by Satish Chandran
Folk Tales of Kerala by K. Jacob
Folk Tales of Madhya Pradesh by S. Parmar
Folk Tales of Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh
by B.K. Borgohain
Folk Tales of Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura
by Borgohain & P.C. Roy Chaudhury
Folk Tales of Orissa by Shanti Mahanty
Folk Tales of Pondicherry by P. Raja
Folk Tales of Punjab by Mulk Raj Anand
Folk Tales of Rajasthan by B.R. Chaudhury
Folk Tales of The Santhals by LR. Chaudhury
Folk Tales of Tamil Nadu by K.A. Seethalakshmi
Folk Tales of Uttar Pradesh by K.P. Bahadur
Rs 35.00 each volume
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STERLING PUBLISHERS PRIVATE LIMITED
ISBN 81 207 0504 1
Rs 35.00
INDUMATI SHEOREY
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STERLING PUBLISHERS PRIVATE LIMITED
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All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior
9
written permission of the publisher.
Printed in India
Published by S.K. Ghai, Managing Director,' Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd.,
HO. Green Park Extension, New Delhi-110016. Printed at Ram Printograph
(India), C-l 14, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase I, New Delhi- 1 10020.
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GENERAL EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
India has a legacy of rich and varied folklore. While re-
search in ancient and modern history has, been directed in re-
. %
cent decades more to the political shifts, little notice has
been paid to the culture, complex traditions and social beliefs
of the common people. The sociologists should pay a gdod
< %
deal of attention to the customs and beliefs of the people and
to changes therein through the ages. They have rather neglect-
ed the study of folklore which is a reliable index to the back-
ground of the people. There has always been an easy mobility
of folklore through pilgrimages, melas and fairs. The wandering
minstrels. sadhus and fakirs have also disseminated them.
People of the north visiting the temples of the south and vice-
versa carry their folk tales, songs, riddles and proverbs with them
> and there is an inconspicuous integration. The dhurnuisalas,
inns and the that t is (places where the pilgrims rejt and inter-
mingle) worked as the clearing house for the folk tales, tradi-
tional songs and riddles. That is why we find a somewhat
common pattern in folk literature of different regions. The
same type of folk tale will be found in Kashmir and in Kerala
with slight regional variation. These stories were passed on
from generation to generation by word of mouth before they
carrie to be reduced to writing.
Folklorists have different approaches to the appreciation
of folklore. Max Mueller has interpreted the common pattern
in folk literature as evidence of nature-myths. Sir L. Gomme
thought that a historical approach is the best for the study of
folklore. But Frazer would rather encourage a com monsense
approach and to him, old and popular folk literature is mu>
tually interdependent and satisfies the' basic curiosities and
instincts of man. That folklore is a vital element in a living
culture has been underlined in recent years by scholars like.
* • " ^
Malinowski and Radcliffe Brown.
.It is unfortunate that the study of folklore in India is of
very recent origin. This is all the more regrettable because the
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(’> FUL K TALKS OF MAHARASHTRA
Pane hat antra stories which had their origin in Bihar had
spread through various channels almost throughout the world.
As late as in 1859, T. Benfey held that there is an unmistak-
able stamp of Indian origin in most of the fairy tales of Europe.
The same stories with different twists and settings have come
back to us through Grimm and Aesop and the retold stories
delight our children. That lndia has neglected a proper study
of the beautiful motifs of our folk tales is seen in the fact that
the two large volumes of the dictionary of Folklore, Mytho-
logy and Legend published by Messrs Funk and Wagnall and
Company of New York have given a very inadequate reference
to India.
What is the secret of the, fascination that the folk tales
hold for the old, the young and the very young ? The same
story is often repeated but does not lose its interest. This is
due to the satisfaction that our basic curiosity finds in the folk
tales. The tales through fantasies, make-believe and credu-
lous acceptance helped primitive man to satisfy his curiosity
about the mysteries of the world and particularly the many
inexplicable phenomena of nature around him. We have an
element of primitiveness in our minds in spite of the advance-
ment of science around us. Even a scientist finds great delight
, in the fairy tales like the one about the moon being swallowed,
causing lunar eclipse. Through the folk, tales man exercised
his imagination and somehow or other we would like to retain
that practice even when we have grown up. The advance-
ment in science can never banish the folk tales. On the other
hand, folk tales have helped the scientific curiosity of men: In
spite of the scientific explanation as to why earthquakes take
placet the old, the young and children would still be delighted
to be told that the world rests on the hood of a great snake and
when the snake is tired with its weight, it shakes the hood and
there is an earthquake. Among the Mflndas, an aboriginal tribe
in Bihar, there is a wonderful explanation of the constellation,
Orion, The sword and belt of Orion, the Mundas imagined, form
their appropriate likeness to the plough and plough-share
which the supreme Sing Bonga God first shaped in the heavens -
and then taught people on earth how to use the plough and the
plough-share. It is further said in the Munda folk tale that
*
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GENERAL EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
• %•
while the Sing Bonga was shaping the plough and the plough-
share with a chisel and a hammer he observed a dove hatching
* its eggs at a little distance. The Sing Bpnga threw his hammer at
the dove to bag the game. He missed his mark and the hammer
went over the. dove’s head and hung on a tree. The hammer
corresponds to the Pleiads which resemble a hammer. 1 The
Aldebaran is' the dove and the other stars of the Hyades are
the eggs of the dove. Any illiterate Munda boy will unmistak-
ably point out these constellations,
4 •
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Weather and climate have their own stories and are often
connected with particular stages of the crops. The wet season
and the hottest month are intimately associated with the ripen-
ing of crops or the blossoming of trees or the frequency of
- dust-storms and stories are woven round them. But nothing
is more satisfying as a folk tale than the explanation of the
phases of the stars, the moon and the sun. -A Munda would
I ^ '
point out the milky way as the Gai Horn, i.e. the path’ of the
cows. The Sing Bonga God leads his cows every day along this
path— the dusky path on the sky is due to the dust raised by the
herd. The dust raised by the cows sends down the rain. A story
.of this type can never fail to sustain interest in spite all the
scientific explanation of the astral- bodies.
The ‘why* -and ‘wherefore’ of the, primitive mind tried to
seek an answer in the surrounding animal and plant kingdom.
Animals are grouped into different categories 'according to
their intelligence and other habits. The fox is always sly while
the cow is gentle. The lion and the tiger have a majestic air
while the horse is swift, sleek and intelligent. The slow-going -
elephant does not forget its attendant ' nor doe^ he forget a
man that teases him. Monkeys are very close to man." The
peacock is gay while the crow is shrewd. The tortoise is slow-
going but sure-footed. The hare is swift but apt to laze on the
road. These characteristics of the common animals are accept-
able even today. Similarly, a large and shady peepal
tree is naturally associated with the abode of the sylvan
god. The thick jungle with its trees and foliage Is known to be’
frequented by thieves and dacoit£ Any solitary hut in the heart
of the forest must be associated with someone unscrupulous or
1
8 FOLK TALES OF MAHARASHTRA
uncanny. These ideas are commonly woven into stories and
through them the primitive mind seeks to satisfy the eternal
why and how of the mind. Folk literature is often crude
dnd even grotesque. The stories of the witches and the ogres
come in this category. There is nothing to be surprised at that.
Scientific accuracy should never be looked for in folk tales
although they are a very good index of the social developments
of a particular time.
*
The last source of the folk tales is human society itself.
The elemental moorings that are at the root of human socieU
are. sought to be illustrated in folk tales. , the day-to-day lile
•of the common man finds its full depiction in the folk tales.
Parental love, family happiness, children’s adventurous habits,
love and fear of the unkppwn, greed, etc. are some pf the usual
themes of folk tales. The «eidmon man yearns for riches and
comforts he cannot usually * look for. He dreams of riches,
princes, kingdoms, etc. and finds satisfaction in stories and
fantasy. Men love gossip and scandal. Women cannot keep
secrets, children will love their parents, a mother-in-law will
always think the daughter-in-law needs advice — these are some
of the basic ideas that make up much of our daily life. The
folk tales are woven round them and whether fantastic or with
a moral undertone they only reflect the day-to-day life, the
joys and sorrows of the common man.
Unknowingly, the folklorists .bring in the religious cus-
toms, beliefs, fpod habits, modes of dress, superstitions, , etc.
and thereby leave a picture of the culture-complex of' the -
region, and its people. A tribal story does not picture a king
riding a large, white, foaming horse followed by hundreds of
other horsemen going for a shikar . In a tribal story the Raja
will be found cutting the gTass and bringing back a stack of
it to feed his cows, but a folk tale more current in urban areas
will have large palaces, liveried-servants, ministers and courtiers
in the king’s court. The very fact that the folk tales have woven
man, nature, animal and plant creation together shows the
great flight of imagination and singular development of mind.
Introduction of moral lessons or any dogma was not done as
an after-thought but came iti as a very natural development.-
v
GENERAL EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION 9
€
The time and the venue of the origin of the stories . are widely
different. It is here that the sociologists and the anthropo-
logists come in useful. As life is different in rural and urban
areas or is chequered With goodness or badness in the world
so is folk literature diversified, as it must be, being a replica of
life. '
• 9 * * %
i
These beautiful folk tales in India were almost on the
point of disappearance when a few pioneers mostly consisting
of foreign missionaries and European scholars looked into
them and made compilations from different parts of India.
Our present run of grandmothers know very few of these
tales. The professional story-tellers who were very dearly
sought after by the old and the yohng, not to speak of the
children, have almost completely disappeared from India.
The film industry and the film songs pose a definite threat to
folklore.. '
Sterling Publishers are to be congratulated for laun-
ching the project of publishing a compilation of 21 volumes
consisting of the folk tales of different regions. The work was
. entrusted to specially selected * writers who had an inti-
mate knowledge of their regions. The regional elements of
the stories have been sought to be preserved as far as possible.
The stories have an elemental involvement , about them and
they are such as are expected to appeal to the child and
its parents. We expect the reader to experience the
atmosphere of different regions after reading the various folk
tales. We want him to have an idea of how Kashmiri folk
retire in wintry nights with the Kangri under the folds of their
clothes to enjoy a gossip, their love for highly spiced meaty
food. We want him to appreciate the splendour of colours in
the sari and the flowers that are a must in Tamil Nadu.
* ■*
We want him to know the stories that are behind some of
the famous temples in the South such as the Kanjeevaram
temple. . We want him to know the story regarding the
construction of the famous Konarak temple. We want
him tp enjoy the stories of the heroes of Gujarat, Punjab
and Rajasthan in their particular roles. We want the
reader to have an idea of the peace and quiet of a hut in the
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10 ' FOLK TALES OF MAHARASHTRA '
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lap of the Kumaon hills. We want the reader to enjoy some of
the folk tales of Bengal and Bihar that have found wings in other
parts of India and to appreciate the village life with its Alpana
an d Bratas. At the same time we want the reader to know the
customs and manners of the Santhals, Garos, and the other
tribes inhabiting NEFA and Assam.
4 • •
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The publishers want to have a miniature India in
these volumes of. folk tales of the different regions of India. It
is an ambitious project. The authors have to be thanked for
their interest in the work. I am sure they have enjoyed the
assignments. It is hoped that the books will be found useful
and interesting to the public. I have no hesitation in saying
that the stories of the different areas do make up a miniature
ndia. It is hoped the reader will enjoy the stories and will
ometo know a little of each region and its people.
P.C. Roy Chaudhury
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PREFACE
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Maharashtra has a hoary past. References to Vidarbha,
one of its ancientmost regions, are found even in the Vedas 1
Legendary heroines like Lord Krishna’s wife Rukmini, Aja’s
wife Indumati, Damayanti, Loparaudra the wife of sage
Agasthya were all daughters of the Vidarbha kings. It is
said that the valiant warrior-sage Parashurama had settled in
‘Aparanta’ now identified as ‘Konkan*.
The boundaries of Maharashtra at one time had extended
from the western coast to the end of Balaghat ranges in the
east, from Narmada in the north, up to Maharashtra and
Tanjore in the south. There is also a marked variety of its
people. '■
The area has various Adivasi tribes like Gond, Korku',
Bhil, Kolam, Lainan, Warli, Katkari, Koli, Banjara, etc. It
has many holy places and famous temples. The region of Goa
is picturesque.
We have a variety of Adivasi myths and legends, tradi-
tional mythological stories told by ‘Gondhalis’ and ‘Kirtankars’,
stories about temples and popular deities like Vithoba,
Khandoba, Bhawani, Mangesha and Jyotirlingas of Shiva, his-
torical legends of the brave Maratha warriors and kings sung,
in ‘Powadas’ stories, tales with a Christian background, fairy
and nursery tales told by the grandmothers.
The oldest form of the Marathi folk tale which ts available
in the written form is that of a fable of “The Crow- and a
Sparrow”, narrated in Leelacharitra, the biography of the
founder of ‘MahanubhaV’- sect, Chakradhar Swami. It is also
perhaps the first story that a Maharashtrian mother tells her
child.
Apart from the myths, legends, fairytales, fables and
parables— the main varieties of folk tales—Maharashtra has
another type of its own, known as Kahnni which is distinct
from the other types. It is a religious story woven round
deities and their festivals, prescribing various forms of religious
12
FOLK TALES OF MAHARASHTRA
rituals and worships. Its purpose is to inculcate love for the
family traditions, sense of duty, piety and other virtues among
the young girls. These Kahanis are said -to have been compos-
ed by women and are rightly called Apaurushcya, i e. not
written by ‘men’. The Kahani usually begins with ‘‘Once
there was an Aat-Paat-Nagar.”
The city is, of course, fictitious. Two such stories ‘-Sam-
pat. Friday’’, and "Mangala Gouri” have been retold in this
book.
One of the prominent characteristics of the Marathi folk
tales is their love for miracles. Here gods, goddesses and ~
fairies often help the poor and the miserable. They readily
give boons. Even demons are sometimes kind. Another
feature is the regard for honour. Some tribal stories, specially
the stories of the Gond tribe are noted for their sense of hon-
our, as also for their serene and pathetic quality.
Fblk tales travel from place to place by word of month.
They have some commpn motifs, but the tales always reflect the
local colour and nuances of particular regions.
I have tried to make this book as representative as possible
of the state. A lot of research in folk literature has been done
in Maharashtra by scholars like Dr Sarojini Babar, Dr Iravati
Karve, Durgawati- Bhagwat, V.V. Josfai, Sane Guruji, V.K.
Ghorghade, S.G. Date and others. The State of Maharashtra
has a “Loksahitya Saroiti" fbr research on folklore. Their
works have been very useful. ' I owe a special gratitude to Dr
Babar and B.B. Borker who helped me in collecting the folk
stories from <3 i©a.
■V Indumati Sheorey
• % • * %
CONTENTS
1 . Five Craftsmen
2. Rupee Tree
3. The Story of Sampat Friday
4. Pavandeva and his Wife
5. Sati Godawari •
6. A Funny Story
7. A Prince with Six Toes
8. Four Wise Ministers
#
9. Three Clever Men and a Demon
10. How Lord Vithoba came to
Pandhapur
11. How Patil’s Buffalo turned into
a Cock
12. A Sister’s Vow ,
1 3. Deception gets its Desert
1 4. The Thousand Killer
15. Why Birds have no Homes
16. The Red Lotus Flower
17. The Incomparable Archer
18. - How Parvatibai Outwitted the
Dacoits
19. A Bhil Story of Creation
20. Goddess Lakshmi’s Rock
21 . The Clever Wife
22. The Story of Mangala Gouri
23. The Unwanted Wife
24. The Fear df Death
25. The Wonder Boy
Glossary
Bibliography
17
■23
26
31
34
39
42
48
53
59
63
68
72
76
79
82
87
90
94
97
100
103'
16ft
111
114
119
120
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FOLK TALES
OF
MAHARASHTRA
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1
FIVE CRAFTSMEN
O NCE upon a time there lived five friends in a
town. One was a carpenter, the other a weaver,
the third a goldsmith, the fourth a bangle-seller and
the fifth a brahmin— well- versed in aneient sacred
lore. As they were starving in their town they deci-
ded to go to some other land to seek fortune.
One morning they collected the tools and
materials of their trade, took leave of the members
of their families and set out on their journey. In
the evening they came to a thick forest where they
could not find their way in the pitch dark. So they
decided to rest there for the night. They selected a
spot under a large banyan tree close to a sparkling
rivulet. The breeze was gentle and the full moon
was rising above the horizon. They found the place
very enchanting.
With the day’s walking they were all tired and
anxious to retire for the night. -But one of them
queried : “What happens if a tiger comes when we
are all asleep ?” The brahmin in his wisdom came
forth with a solution and suggested : “We will take
turns in keeping vigil. This way every one of us
will get the necessary rest.” All of them welcomed
the suggestion. The brahmin then declared the
order for keeping guard thus : first the carpenter,
then the weaver, followed by the goldsmith, the
bangle-seller and lastly the brahmin.
i r
*
All except the carpenter retired. With the
gentle breeze, the rising moon, and the shimmer of
*
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p
1* FOLK TALBS OF MAHARASHTRA
the sparkling stream the carpenter was simply be-
witched. He asked himself : “How should I keep
myself engaged during the watch ?”
An idea came to him like a flash. Why not
carve a beautiful wooden statue of a young woman?
In no time, he took out his tools, hacked a log of
wood and perched himself on a table-top rock. He
worked like one inspired and soon sculpted the
statue of an exceedingly beautiful woman. He was
thrilled by his creation. He picked up the statue
gently and placed it resting against the trunk of the
banyan tree. Then he woke the weaver to take his
turn and went to sleep.
The weaver woke up rubbing his eyes to drive
away sleep. His gaze was soon arrested by the
statue. “What a piece of loveliness 1 But alas, she is
nude. She must be clothed.” So he took out his
tools and a h^nk of gossamer silk and with utmost
skill he wove a dreamlike sari and choli for the
statue. Then he clothed the statue, stood it resting
against the tree-trunk, and woke the goldsmith
whose turn now it was to keep guard.
* * •
The goldsmith too, like his friends, was amazed
by the beauty of the statue. But he felt sad that it
had no ornaments. So he immediately took out his
tools and fashioned a few ornaments of exquisite
design, adorned the statue with loving care and
placed it against the trunk of the tree. It was now
the turn of the bangle-seller to keep watch.
The moon was now overhead. When the
bangle-seller saw the lovely statue he cried in
amazement: ‘What beauty! What form!! But
alas !!! She has no kumkum, no mangalasutra , and
no glass bangles on her delicate wrists. An Indian
woman is incomplete without these.* So he created
a set ofbangles and a mangalasutra and put them
on the statue. This done, he wondered what, to do
19
FIVE CRAFTSMEN
/
about the red kumkun mark for the forehead ? All
of a sudden he got an inspiration. He slit his finger
with a sharp knife and put the auspicious vermilion
mark on the statue’s forehead with his blood and
placed it resting against the tree.
- . • .
He then woke the brahmin for his turn. Since
day-break was not far away, the brahmin went
to the stream, .took, his bath while chanting the
mantras and came to the rock to keep vigil. Inevi-
tably, his gaze was drawn by the statue. He went
near it apa said in ecstasy : “Ah ! What beauty !!
What charm !!! But alas, it is lifeless. It is a
matter of great sorrow that such a piece of beauty
should be without life.” . He placed the statue on
the rock, and started chanting mantras and sprink-
ling water over it till almost day-break. There was
suddenly a stir in the air and the statue came to
life.
He was dazzled by the heavenly beauty of the
twenty-year old young maiden. He could hardly
take his eyes from her. Since it was almost day-
break, the four friends had arisen from their sleep
one by one. When they saw the maiden, everyone
wished she could be his wife. The maiden sat still
witnessing the quarrel with a smile on her lips.
• • \ • *
» • , . '
The carpenter, raising his eyebrows and flouri-
shing his arms in the air, said with great agitation :
“Hie idea of carving the statue was mine. Had 1 not
created the statue, this question would not have
cropped up at all. So it is my right to have her as
my wife.*'
*
The weaver did not lag behind in vehemence.
He said: “Yott made the statue po doubt, but it was
nude. So I clothed her with exquisite garments. It
is but just that I should wed this maiden.”
% S
The goldsmith with clenched fists shouted :
“Enough of this empty boasting about creating the
20 FOLK TALBS OF MAHARASHTRA
* V
statue and clothing, it. One cannot think of woman
without ornaments. So I, and none else, has the
right to marry her.”
The bangle-seller, looking intently at his
friends, asserted : “I have given her the accepted
marks of marriage by slipping bangles round her
wrists, tying mangalasutra round her neck and put-
ting a vermilion mark on her forehead with my cwn
blood. So should I not marry her ?”
The brahmin boiling with rage intervened :
“You are all fools!; who did what is immaterial.
After all, the status was without life. Had it rem-
ained so, all your claims for the maiden’s hand
would have been meaningless. By the power of my
mantras I infused life in the statue. So she is
rightfully mine.”
• t
Rut not one of them was prepared to yield to
the other. From hot words they came to blows.
Seeing no way out, the carpenter suggested : “Let
us go to God Brahma and request him to decide the
matter for us. We should accept Whatever decision
he gives.” They all agreed to this suggestion.
' t •
And in no time a furious storm began to rage
in the forest with blinding flashes of lightning.
They saw an old farmer coming to them, with
a staff in his hand. Impressed by his divme aura*
they realised that God Brahma himself had come
to them in the garb of a farmer. They all ran to
him and bowed.
The farmer seated himself on the rock and
beckoned the young woman to come and sit by his
side. Then turning to the five friends he asked :
“Why are you quarrelling like this ?”
• %
They then narrated their stories.
%
After hearing them all he turned solemnly to the
carpenter and asked :
«
i
FIVB CRAFTSMEN , 21
*
“Well, carpenter, you say you made the statue.
What exactly did you do ?”
i , /
“I brought the statue in existence.”
“So, how is the giver of the birth related to the
born ?”
“He will be the father, Sir.”
m -4
“So you are her father, is it not ?”
“Yes, Sir.”
The farmer then turned to the weaver and
asked : “Well, good man, you provided the young
woman with sari and choli. What does it actually
mean ?
%
. “Sir, I protected her virtue.”
y
“Alright. How will the protector of a maiden’s
virtue be related to her ?”
“He will be her brother, Sir.”
.
“So you are her brother.”
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22 FOLK TALES OP MAHARASHTRA
m
It was now the turn of the goldsmith. The
farmer asked him :
V
, *
“What does a maternal uncle do for his niece on
the occasion of her marriage ?”
• • • •
“He presents her with ornaments.”
• *
“Then, you giver of ornaments, how are you
related to her ?”
“As her maternal uncle, Sir.”
The farmer then asked the bangle-seller the
significance of his act. The bangle-seller said : “She
was a virgin. By bestowing on her the marriage
tokens I gave her the status of a married woman.
Sensing the trend of the verdict the brahmin
intervened in desperation : “Sir, this is injustice.
The statue was an inanimate object. I injected life
into it” .
“Calm down, oh brahmih,” the farmer obser-
ved. “It does not behave a brahmin to lose his
balance so easily. Now, in giving it life, What did
you do ?”
“fused all my craft in infusing life and know-
ledge into her.”
“So, how is a giver of knowledge related to
her ?” . ’
•
"* * • i
'“As her Guru, Sir."
t i • •
The fanner then gave his verdict : “Since, the
bangle-seller has given her the symbols of a marital
status he is her rightful husband.”
* * * . j •
All the friends were impressed bv the wisdom
of 'the old farmer and accepted his decision with
joy.
They then bowed down to touch the feet of
the farmer and when they raised their heads they
found that he had disappeared .
RUPEE TREE
A T Aat-Pat-Nagar* there lived a brahmin. One
day he went to the king to ask for alms. The
king offered him one hundred rupees as alms. But
the brahmin refused to take them and said : “I
don't want one hundred rupees. Just give me any-
thing, even a paisa, which you have earned by the
sweat of your brow.”
The king was perplexed. He could give no-
thing, as there was nothing he had earned by his
own labour. So he asked the. brahmin to come after
two days.
• 0 , %
Next day, the king got up early in the morning,
discarded his royal robes, put oh old, torn gar-
ments, and went to a nearby village. There he
came across the foreman of a labour-gang working
on the road and asked him if he could give him
some work. The. foreman asked :
“What work can you do ? Can you dig the
earth V
“Yes,” the king replied.
“Alright, then take this pick axe and dig a pti
there and bring some earth for the road.”
The king picked up the axe and started digging. -
But unaccustomed as he was to doing any hard
labour, very soon he started perspiring profusely,
and he could hardly hold the axe as there were
sores on his palms. The foreman saw his plight and
remarked :
▼
*
*■ A fictions town with no geographical identity, and is used in
most Maharashtrian tales.
24 FOLK TALES OF MAHARASHTRA
(
“Look here, it seems you cannot dig any
more. You are drenched in perspiration.”
And throwing a four-anna piece ' toward him,
he asked the king to take it and go away. The
king picked up the coin and walked home.
Next day the king came to the royal court
dressed in regal finery, with the four-anna coin in
his pocket. The brahmin came again and asked
for alms. The king took out the coin from his
pocket and gave it to him saying : “This I have
earned with the sweat of my brow.”
What did the brahmin do ? He just planted
the coin in a bed of Tulsi plants near the well in his
backyard . The coin soon sprouted and it develop-
ed into a mighty tree, with its roots striking deep
in the well. The tree was in no time laden with
rupee coins. One day the king s men, on a round
of collecting flowers for Puja in the v royal, house-
hold, saw .the rupee-laden tree. They went straight
-and reported to the king :
RUPBB TREE 25
*
w
a tree in his backyard which bears shining silver
rupees.”
The king was greatly astonished. He ordered
his army to uproot the tree and bring it to him. But
the brahmin would not allow the men even to touch
the tree. He said : “Let the king himself come
and take the tree away if he wants.” When the
king came and wanted to uproot the tree, the brah-
min asked him : “Well, king, do you remember
what you. had given me ? Just a four-anna piece.
But because you had earned it with the sweat of
your brow, it developed into a mighty tree. So the
tree is yours. But remember that in fact you gave
me only four-annas. * But if it pleases you, you
can take away whatever you gave me.”
The king felt humbled and went his way.
J <c d J —
3
THE STORY OF SAMPAT FRIDAY
I N Maharashtra there is a folk tale relating to
each day of the week. There is a vrata— the wor-
ship and ritual-prescribed for the reigning deity of
each day, and the devotee believes that through its
observance he derives a specific benefit. The present
tale is about the vrata known as the sampat (wealth)
observed on Fridays. Its observance brings wealth
and prosperity. The recitation of the story forms a
part of the vrata.
In a town, At-Pat-Nagar, there lived a poor
brahmin. He was so poor that he could hardly
make both ends meet. One day when his wife paid
a social visit to her neighbour, she related to her the
tale of her misery. The neighbour told her to
observe the ritual and worship Goddess Laxmi— the
reigning deity of Friday. She said : “Start this
ritual from any Friday in the month of Shrawan.
Keep fast for the whole day. In the evening invite
five married women, wash their feet, make tradi-
tional offerings of milk and sugar and apply kum-
kum to their foreheads. Distribute roasted gram
as prasadam. Do this for one yehr and the Goddess
will bestow you with prosperity/' She came home,
offered a sincere prayer to Goddess Laxmi and
commenced her Friday worship. Months passed but
they remained poor as ever.
\
In the same town lived her rich brother with
his proud wife and children. They lived in a pala-
*
4
I
THB STORY OP SAMPAT FRIDAY 27
*
tial house and it was replete with food-grains and
wealth. Once the brother decided to perform
Sahasrabhojana , i.e. to feed a thousand brahmins.
Hie ceremony of feasting was to go on for the
whole week. The brother and sister-in-law invited
almost the whole town but not the sister. They
were ashanjed of her poverty. When the sister
learnt about the Sahasrabhojanay she said to her
husband : “I will go to my brother's house.** v
Her husband tiding to discourage her, said r
“You have not been invited, please do not go'*.
But she protested :
“Sister-in-law may have forgotten to invite
me. After all it is my brother’s house. Do I need
an invitation to go to his house ? When he is feed- '
ing a thousand people, surely I and my four child-
ren would not be such a burden on them.”
I •
Saying this she got ready to go to her brother.
She had no new sari nor any ornaments. So she
put on a simple sari of daily wear, and dressed her
children the same way. At her brother’s place,
wherever she turned her eyes, she saw the guestfc
attired in rich garments. Her sister-in-law was
moving about in the gathering, flaunting her rich
Paithani * and precious ornaments. She noticed her
brother standing at the entrance of the mandapam
but he ignored her. When she went inside, her
sister-in-law did not even show her the common
courtesy of asking her to come in and have meals.
Though the sister felt hurt, she behaved as if it was
her own house. Hundreds of wooden seats were
kept in a row with thalis laid before them full of
rich food. She and her children occupied their
seats. When the sister-in-law came to serve ghee,
she saw her and said : “Well sister, how have you
■ %
* A silk brocade sari made at Paithan in Marathawada,
much in fashion in olden days.
FOLK TALBS OF MAHARASHTRA
28
come ? Did your brother invite you 7* Saying this
nonrfvM % M emptu ° us 8 Iance at her and her
heart ^ ^ mea ^ went home wlth a heav y
Next day her children insisted on her to go
again to their uhcle’s place, saying : “There we
would ^t nch food again.’’ Though reluctant, she
matf f a • he is my brother. What does it
matter if his wife insulted me. Since I am poor, I
have got to put up with such insults.” The sister-
m-law this time humiliated her with stronger words
and asked her not to come again. But when she
found her again on the third day she got furious,
r * U j he i? t0 h f, r hus band, fuming with , rage and
houteti for all to hear : .“Every day your sister
comes uninvited bringing her half-a-dozen children
with her. People assembled here laugh at me. I
feel ashamed of her. Ask her to go away.”
The brother who ^ as , under his wife s thumb,
also felt annoyed by his sister’s presence. He went
straight to her and said :
“Why do you come uninvited ? People ridi-
cule us' on your account. We feel ashamed. Go
home and don’t show your face again.” He then
^. 7 ! ^old of her hand and drove her and her
children out. -
She feltbroken-hearted. She offered a solemn
prayer to Goddess Laxmi and fasted the whole day,*
bitterly weeping and saying : “Look how poverty
reduces man to nothing. Poverty has estranged
lrom me even my brother.” The goddess took
pity on her and soon she saw a definite turn in her
fortune. Her husband’s trade picked up. Mean-
while she was vigorously observing the Friday ritual
and by the end of the year they were rolling in
wcaitn.
THE STORY OP SAMPAT FRIDAY
29
For the terminal pooja and feast, she invited
her brother and sister-in-law. They had already
heard about the sister’s prosperity, so they felt
very humbled and with great cordiality the brother
said : “Sister, come to our house for dinner one
day. Please don’t say ‘No’, else we will feel hurt.”
She accepted the invitation.
On the appointed day the sister with all her
finery and ornaments visited her. brother’s house.
The sister-in-law came out to receive her, washed
her feet with hot water and seated her respectfully
on the carpet. She was dancing attendance on- the
sister, as if nothing was too good for her. Silver
plates and bowls were laid out for dinner among
decorative Rangoli motifs. Fragrance of the incense
sticks filled the air. Choicest dishes were prepared
for the dinner. When everything' was ready, the
brother and his wife took hold of the sister’s hand
and escorting her to her seat, requested her to Com-
mence the meal. But the sister did not show any
inclination to touch the food. The sister-in-law then
V
30 FOLK TALES OF MAHARASHTRA
I
solicitously asked : “What is the matter sister ? Is
there anything wanting V
The sister said : “Please lay an empty plate by
my side/’
“For whom ?’’ both queried.
9 •
The sister said : “First put down the plate and
then I will explain.”
The brother hurriedly placed a plate as desir-
ed. Meanwhile the sister took off all her orna-
ments and arranged them' neatly in the empty plate.
She then started putting each item of the eatables
on the ornaments. The brother and. his wife were
perplexed at what the sister was doing, and asked :
“Sister what are you doing V The sister explained
calmly : “I am feeding these ornaments. You have
invited me to dinner today because I have these
ornaments. Actually you have invited the ornaments
for dinner and not me."
The brother felt abashed at this. Then both the
brother and his wife touched the sister’s feet and
begged for her forgiveness.
.
PAVANDEVA AND HIS WIFE
P AVNI is a small town in Bhandara in Maharash-
tra. The aboriginal tribes in the neighbouring
areas believe that ages ago it was the capital of
Pavandeva— the wind god. King Pavan had a large
empire which extended from Bhandak in Chanda
in me south, to Amraoti in the west. It was said
that he used to take his bath at Pavni, his day’s meal
at Bhandak and night’s rest at Amraoti. His wife
Kamlarani, ‘the Queen of Waterlily’, had miracu-
lous powers. She could walk on the tanks, stand
on the lotus leaves in water, could draw water in
unbaked earthen pots with untwined string. Al-
though very rich, the king and queen, always wore
simple white garments and worked with their own
hands. For this simplicity they were loved and res-
pected by their people. Tribute was paid to the
king in iron ore.
The royal couple had a touchstone and they
could, if necessary, turn their subjects’ tribute of
iron ore into gold. But they did not need this pre-
cious metal as the queen wore no ornaments. Yet
even without them she possessed unequalled charm.
But once during the Pola festival the queen saw
other women dressed in colourful rich garments
and wearing precious ornaments. She thought she
too must have these things. She went to her hus-
band, Pavandeva and pleaded : “Look, how rich
garments and ornaments enhance a woman’s beau-
ty ! I too want to have ornaments like those
women !”
f
32
FOLK TALBS OF MAHARASHTRA
Pavandeva at first could not believe that Kamla-
rani who, all along was so simple, and never even
wore a single ornament, should be pining for jewel-
lery or rich garments. He tried to persuade her by
saying : Kamlarani, white is the king of all
colours. With your simple white dress you have
no match in grace and beauty in the entire universe
Why do you want to degrade your divine charm to
the level of the mortals ? If you insist, you 'may
have to repent later.” y
But the queen insisted : “Make me all types of
ornaments by our touch stone. I must have them
for the festival.”
Pavandeva felt sad but he did not argue further
He gave everything his wife desired. When Kamla-
rani joined the other women in the Pola festivity,
she was like one among the many. No longer could
she be distinguished from others by her white
apparel. She was just ignored. She came home
greatly disenchanted. Her eyes opened but it was
too late.
When she dropped her usual unbaked earthen
pot in the well to draw water, the flimsy untwined
string could not bear the weight of the pot as be-
fore and snapped. . While the pot too could not
hold water, it became clay and dissolved into
water. When she started crossing the tank and
set foot on the lotus leaf she found herself drown-
ing.
4
She now knew what had befallen her. Her mira-
culous powers had vanished. She had desires like
ordinary mortals, so like them she must be. She
was herself the cause of her undoing. *
Kamlarani was broken-hearted. The king too
was sad and indifferent.
t
pavandbva and his wife ' 33
^, ? ut tl 1 ie y did not have to grieve long. A michtv
asss as,? “ ”»«-
9
stilKrsteSen^ 8 “ P a Sn,a " t0Wn which
N •
i
5
SATI GODAWARI
T ALL and handsome, prince Sambhaji the, eldest
son of king Shivaji, was only seventeen at that
time. Great preparations were going on for the
coronation of Shivaji when he was to be formally
declared as the “Defender of the faith, protector of
the Mother Cow and the Brahmins, Shri Chhatra-
pati Maharaj.” So the king along with his queen,
mother Jijamata, his wives, sons and the royal
family was staying at the Raigarh fort. But prince
Sambhaji did not seem to be much concerned about
his father’s coronation. He would daily come
out of the fort on the pretext of riding and would
absent himself the whole day. Gradually his
absence come to be noticed by Shivaji and the
courtiers, and soon people started whispering about
his doings.
It so happened that one Gangadhar Shastri of
Ratnagiri, in Konkan was on his way with his
daughter-in-law Godawari to her husband; his son s
place near Raigarh. Godawari was known as a
very beautiful and virtuous woman. She had onl^
recently come of age and was being taken to her
husband for the first time. _
While on a riding spree, Sambhaji sighted the
travelling party consisting of the old Shastri, two
attendants and the beautiful young woman. He
made, enquiries of them and when his eye fell on
the young girl, he was struck by her beauty. He
' wanted to marry her. Forgetting his royal birth, his
SATI GODAWARI
35
father’s reputation and the risk involved, he attack-
ed the three men. Armed and brave as he was, he
soon overpowered them and made them afraid for
their lives. '
%
A little beyond the Raigarh fort on the border
between the two villages of Pane and Pandheri,
stands the Lingana fort. Close to its walls, there is
a big natural cave in the adjoining mountains. Du-
ring Shivaji’s time the cave was used f&r keeping
prisoners, so it had a strong iron door too.
0
Sambhaji kept Godawari in this cave. He arran-
ged for a maid-servant and posted two soldiers to
keep, watch on the cave . Every day he would go
there and try to persuade the girl to marry him.
Godawari’s reply would be : “I am already married,
you are like my brother. Send me back to my father-
in-law, or my husband.”
Days passed but Sambhaji did not give up hope.
He still believed that he would win over Godawari
one day. By and by the news spread to the fort and
reached Jijamata and Shivaji.
f
Jijamata immediately sent for her grandson and
straightaway took him to task : “We are ashamed
of you,” she said, “you have sullied your father’s
great name. Fie on you ! Tell me who is the girl
you are torturing ?”
Sambhaji stood hanging his head down but kept
his mouth shut. Shivaji who was sitting by his mo-
ther, said more in anguish than anger :
“I call myself a ‘Protector of the Mother-Cow
and the- Brahmins' and here is my son, the future
king of the Marathas, who tries to rob married
brahmin girls of their virlue 1 Go away from my
sight.” '
*
. But Sambhaji stood still.
36
FOLK TALBS OF MAHARASHTRA
Next day Shivaji sent his two courtiers to the
cave and brought Godawari to the tort. When she
was brought into the palace, both Jijamata and
Shivaji bowed before her and Shivaji touched her
feet.
Seeing the great Maratha king and the queen-
mother, both of them much senior to her in age, pay
ing respects to her, Godawari was nonplussed and
overwhelmed for a while. Seeing her plight, Jijamata
said :
“My daughter, this is the kingdom of Shivaji
who has taken a vow to protect the sacred Cow and
the Brahmins. And a brahmin Sati, though younger
in age is worthy of our worship.”
Then Jijamata called Sambhaji and ordered him
to bow to her. “That is the only way to wash away
your sins,” said Shivaji.
When Sambhaji after some hesitation touched
her feet, Godawari ’s face brightened up. She said :
“Now you are my brother.”
Next morning quite unexpectedly Godawari said
to Jijamata : “Queen mother, I have to make you
one request. Please make preparations for my fune-
ral pyre. I want to perform Sati.”
Jijamata was aghast. She called Shivaji, Sambhaji
and others in the palace and conveyed Godawari’s
desire to them. They were all stunned. In fact
Shivaji was arranging to send her to her husband.
He asked Godawari :
“Daughter, we are making arran gements for your
journey home. Tell us where you wish to go— to
your father or to your husband ? We will try
to make amends for the humiliation caused to you
by us. We will try to convince your father-in-law
and your husband of your chastity and virtue, and
tell them that you are as pure as the Ganges.”
“But how is it possible now ?” said GodaWari,
s
SATI GODAWARI
i id } hc society say about Sita who went
through fire to prove her innocence ? I am a mere
mortal as compared to her. I have no other wav left
a«anS V fhe pv C ^’ ity by bUrning myse,f ' Plcase
As she spoke, Godawari’s face wore an expres-
sion of unearthly beauty. They all knew that her
determination to immolate herself was firm and
final. Shivaji then sent his men to find a suitable
place for the pyre. Others made arrangements for
the religious ritual. Jijamata, along with Godawari
and other royal women came to Wadi— the place
°* a palanquin. Sambhaji himself was one
of its bearers.
Sati s pyre was ready. Godawari, standing on
the rock near it, distributed her ornaments to other
married women. Then they all bowed to her. She
FOLK TALES OF MAHARASHTRA
►
38
blessed everyone, wished well of the Maratha king-
dom, and climbing the steps of the sandalwood
pyre said : “After three days the Ganges water will
gush out from under this rock. It will be a witness
to my purity.”
The pyre was lit. The red flames rose high
into the sky, and with it the pure heart of Sati
Godawari.
A black-stone Samadhi built about three
hundred years ago at Wadi, is still seen today.
People call it ‘Sati Godawari’s Samadhi .’
I
%
A FUNNY STORY
IN a tribal village there lived an old Gond
couple. Once they had a violent quarrel over the
food. The old woman had prepared seveii Bhakris
and the quarrel arose over their division. The wife
more ” 1 ” aVe prepared them > so 1 shall have
But the husband said : “I have paid for them
so I must have more.”
They quarrelled dll they were both exhausted.
Th^ lay down to sleep leaving the supper uneaten.
At midnight, the old man sat up and said :
“Let us come to terms, whoesover speaks first
wi have three and whosoever keeps silent longer
will nave four. . *
They agreed to this and again lay down and
kept silent. Not a word at night. Dawn broke, yet
no word passed between them. The day and the
night passed. Yet both kept mum. Thus two days
passed away No sound came from their house.
Neighbours thought it strange. *
.“What’s happened to the old couple?” They
said. They went and knocked at the door. There
was no response. Then they forcibly opened the
door and found both lying on the floor, eyes clos-
e i W £t days of hun S er had made them pale and
weak. The neighbours went near and asked :
/
r
I
*
40 POLK TALBS OF MAHARASHTRA
%
“Eh, old man, is anything wrong ?”
No reply came. They went to the wife. But she
too did not move. So the neighbours thought that
- they were dead. They made arrangements for their
funeral and when they were complete they placed
them on the bier and seven neighbours took them
to the graveyard. Even then the couple did not
utter a word. But when their bodies were being
lowered in the grave, the wife quietly said :
“Alright, I will eat three, you can have
four.” ,■ •
As soon as the seven men heard her words,
they thought the corpses had become ghosts and
they meant to eat the seven men. In their terror
they threw the bodies and ran for their lives.
Now the old couple was greatly surprised.
They did not understand why their neighbours ran
away dropping their bodies with a thud. To find
out the reason of their act, they pulled themselves
up and began running after them.
In the meantime the seven neighbours went to
the police station and reported the matter. The
police inspector along with a couple of constables
started towards the graveyard for investigation of
the ghost story. But before they had gone a few
paces, they saw the Gond couple running in their
direction. The policemen were so scared that they
too started running. They went straight to their
king and narrated the whole story. The king too
was equally alarmed. He took his wife and children
and left the palace in a great hurry. Within minutes
the whole palace was empty.
s
The couple, when they saw the policemen
running as their neighbours did, were even more
mystified. So they followed them. But as they were
old and fasting for the last two days, they could not
* • •
A FUNNY STORY 4 \
this^ortl SMttSS ‘Fear’ came into
ghosts, Ce tllen man has been afraid 0 f
\ • r
• — > -
I
• I
*
♦
• ► . r
i
1
4
\
. I • 4 ••••
A PRINCE WITH SIX TOES
4 • •
• *
1/ ING Sudharm ik was blessed with a son who had
^ six toes on his left foot. The court astrologers
told the king : “This is an omen of poverty. The
boy is bom under evil stars and presages your early
death.” Soon after, a powerful enemy invaded the
kingdom and killed Sudharmik., His wife immo-
lated herself on the funeral pyre. The prince’s maid
brought the boy secretly to Kuntalpur, now, Katol,'
near Nagpur. She took up a domestic job and rear-
ed him for three years till her death. Then the
orphan boy grew to the age of five on alms and help
. of the women of the town who loved hiin because
of bis great devotion to God.
One day oil his usual round of begging and
singing Bhajans , he went to the palace of Dhrishta-
buddhi, minister to king of Kuntalpur. Hundreds
of Brahmins were being entertained to a feast at
that time. When the Brahmins saw the singing boy
they told the minister : “This boy will become
king one day and will own your wealth.” The
minister was enraged. He thought : “This boy
will usurp the kingdom- of Kuntalpur and rob me
of all my wealth. It is best to get rid of him now.”
So he ordered two assassins to take the boy to
the forest and kill him. When they drew their
swords, he asked them to wait till he finished his
prayers. They were so charmed by his winning
smile and innocence that they could not carry out
the' evil deed. Instead, they cut off his sixth toe,
showed it to the minister and collected their
reward.
. 4
A PRINCE WITH SIX TOBS 43
With his sixth toe now gone, the curse of
poverty was lifted. While wandering alone in the
forest, he met King Kulinda who had come for
hunting. The king felt pity for the boy, took him
to his capital Chandanawati and entrusted him to
his Queen Meghawati, She had no child of her own
so she looked after him with love and named him
Chandrahasa.
%
When Chandrahasa Was eight, the king per-
formed his thread ceremony. H§ was taught the
Vedas, the scriptures and all other branches of
learning, and trained as an expert archer.
• 4
When he was fifteen he said to the king : “I
want to embark on a mission of ‘Digvijaya— (the
conquest of the world.)”
“You are so young,” said the king, “how can
you at such a young age face the mighty kings ?”
• — • •
“I will prove it by my deeds,” insisted the young
prince. ,
At that time King Kulinda was a feudatory of
the King of Kuntalpur. So the king said to
Chandrahasa : “The enemies of Kuntalpur are
harassing the King. So you destroy them first.”
The young prince succeeded in his mission
beyond all expectations. Apart from defeating all
the enemies, he collected vast wealth. The king was
dazzled by this achievement. He sent a portion of
the wealth as tribute to the king of Kuntalpur with
the message : “My son Chandrahasa has returned
unconquered after defeating all our enemies.”
™ % .
%
Greatly overjoyed, the king of Kuntalpur
then sent his minister Dhrishtabuddhi to Chanda-
nawati to see the conqueror prince. When the
minister met King Kulinda, he queried : “How is
if that you never informed us that you had a s
son ?”
44 .
FOLK TALES OF MAHARASHTRA.
Then king Kulinda narrated how he had come
by Chandrahasa. The minister was upset when he
saw the prince. From the cut sixth toe of his left
foot, he recognized him at once. He thought of a
strategem. On the pretext of sending him to present
himself to the king of Kuntalpur, he sent him with
a letter to his son Madan.
* 4 * %
On his way . to Kuntalpur Chandrahasa made
a halt for some rest in a garden on the bank of a
lake. As he was tired he fell asleep. It so happened
that Princess Champakmalini had come for a picnic
in the garden with her friends. With them was
Vishaya, the daughter of Dhrishtabuddhi. While
, strolling in the garden by herself, Vishaya came to
the place where Chandrahasa was sleeping. Her
curiosity was aroused. When she went nearer, she
instantly fell in love with the handsome sleeping
prince. She then saw a letter peeping out of his
pocket. She quietly took the letter and was sur-
prised to find that it was addressed to her brother.
She opened it and read : “Give ( Visha' (poison) to
the bearer of this letter.”
9 * •
• Now Vishaya was puzzled. She could not
understand why her father should wish to give
poison to such a handsome prince. There must be
I
A PRINCE WITH SIX TCBS
45 *
some mistake. “Is it that my father wants to give
me— ‘Vishaya’ and not Vis ha to tlie prince 7”
thought Vishaya. So with some Kajal and stem of
a leaf she added letters ‘ya’ and Vis ha (poison) be-
came ‘Vishaya’. She slipped the letter pack in the
pocket and quietly left to join her friends.
After his rest in the garden, Chandrahasa went
straight to Madan who welcomed the idea of his
father of marrying his sister Vishaya to such a hand-
some and brave prince. He solemnised their mar- ^
riage with due pomp and show. -
Meanwhile when Chandrahasa left for Kuntal-
pur, Dhrishtabuddhi imprisoned King Kulinda,
grabbing all the wealth Chandrahasa had.
When he came near, his mansion, he was sur-
prised at the activity going on there. There was a
mandapam in front of the house and a lot of people
were moving about gayly to the accompaniment of
Shahnai. He asked the people there : “What is all
this bustle about 7”
« / • 4 * .
“Don’t you know 7 This is in honour of
Vishaya’s marriage.”
“Vishaya’s marriage 7 With whom 7”
“With Prince Chandrahasa of Chandanawati.”
• • «,« • * • •
#
Dhrishtabuddhi cursed his fate. He had ex-
pected Chandrahasa to have been killed. Instead
he had become his son-in-law.
k • .
Two attempts at killing Chandrahasa had
failed. So, he decided to try once again.
/ - '
On a hill outside the town there was a temple
of goddess Chandika. He ordered two assassins to '
conceal themselves in the temple and kill the person
who would come to worship the goddess in the
evening. After arranging this, he said to his son-
46 FOLK TALES OF MAHARASHTRA
in-law Chandrahasa : “It is a custom in our
family to offer worship to goddess Chandika after
every auspicious ceremony. So you go to the tem-
ple this evening to offer your homage.”
On his way to the temple, Chandrahasa met
Madan with an urgent message from the king of
Kuntalpur. Madan said : “The king has summoned
you immediately. He has decided to retire from
life. He. is marrying his daughter Champakmalini
to you and make you king in his place.” Chandra-
hasa immediately left for the palace, while Madan
took from him the tray containing flowers, incense
sticks, oil lamp and other articles required for wor-
ship, and went straight to the temple.
Next day when Dhrishtabuddhi, heard
Chandrahasa proclaimed as king, he raged with
helpless fury. He knew something had gone wrong.
When he rushed to the temple, he found Madan’s
body, with its head chopped off lying in a pool off
blood. He at last realised that one cannot harm a
person whom God protects. He repented for his
evil deeds and shocked by his son’s death, killed
himself by dashing his head against a pillar.
A Sadhu who saw the dead bodies informed
about them to Chandrahasa, the new king. He at .
once rufched to the temple, sat in penance in front
of the goddess, making an offering of his own body
in the sacred fire. The goddess pleased at his
devotion, directed him to ask for a boon. He
requested her to restore the two dead persons to
life, Which she did. He then brought Madan and
Dhrishtabuddhi in a procession to the palace.
Chandrahasa then decided to go to Chandana-
wati to see his father Kulinda. When he reached
there he found that the king and his consort -
Meghawati, fed up with the harassment of Dhrishta-
buddhi’s henchmen, were on the point of immolat-
\
A PRINCE WITH SIX TOES 47
* /
♦
ing themselves in fire. He rescued them and told
them all that had happened.
$ s
/
Under the wise guidance of his father, he
ruled happily over his kingdom, for many years.
• • 4 . '
The story of this devotee prince is narrated in
the religious books of Maharashtra.
£
/
»
1POUR WISE MINISTERS
\7EERASENA, the king of Vijapur wus known
; far and wide as a wise and kind ruler. He was
kindhearted, no doubt, the credit fpr hi$ benevolent
rule was due to the wisdom of his four ministers
who always advised him on matters concerning the
welfare of his subjects; But there were occasions
when they had to bow before the royal will, even
against their better judgement. '
An occasion for conflict arose when the king
desired to build a luxurious palace for himself and
in order to raise money for its building, he decided
to levy a heavy tax on the people, both rich and
poor. The-ministers opposed this proposal, frankly
telling him that it would be unjust to tax people for
such a luxury. They knew that their plain-speaking
would incur the king’s wrath and cost . them even
their position in the court. But this time they decid-
ed nqt to yield to the king’s whims. As expected,
the king was enraged and he not only dismissed
them but also banished them from his kingdom.'
The four exiled ministers dressed as wayfarers
left the capital and walked aimlessly riot knowing
where to go. When the scorching sun began to beat
on their heads in the afternoon, they took shelter
under a banyan tree. Soon they ribticed that it had
rained in those parts the previous night and noticed
the footprints of a camel that must have passed its
solitary way. With nothing to do, these four highly
intelligent persons then decided to while away their \
'time, by trying to visualise what the camel was like
by examining its footprints on the wet ground.
I
• %
FOUR WISE MINISTERS * 49
9 .
*
While they were thus engaged, a camel-rider
came running to them crying aloud that he had lost
his camel and asked them whether they had seen it
passing that way. The first minister asked him,
Was your camel lame in one hind leg ?”
‘‘Yes, Sir, sure he
r Did he go this way ?”
But without answering his question the second .
minister asked him, “Not only lame, but it was
blind in one eye too, isn’t it ?”
- ^ '
“Yes-yes, Sahib ! It had only one eye. Surely
you must have seen it. Won’t you tell me where it
has gone ?”
% * • . *
“We have not seen your camel. But we can say
that it had no tail either. Is it true?” asked the third
minister.
* *
• • • • •
“It’s true. He had no tail. He lost it last year
in an accident,” replied the camel-rider* who had*'
lost his patience by now. He asked : “But how do
you know all this without seeing my camel ? Surely
it is you who must have stolen it!”
%
“Believe me, we have not seen your camel, let
alone steal it,” said the fourth minister calmly.
“Even then, I can further tell you that it is not
keeping well.”
« /
“What more, O God!” shouted the camel-
rider. ‘What more proof do I need, you thieves ? ■
I am now certain that you have stolen it. Give me
back my catnel, otherwise I will report the matter
to the king.”
• * •
The first minister tried to calm the agitated
camel-rider and said : “Listen, man ! I tell you 1
once again that we have' not seen your camel. You
may complain to the king if you like, but nothing
will come out of it. Better search it elsewhere
V
1
*
50 FOLK TALBS OF MAHARASHTRA
1 A
without wasting time artd stop making false charges
against honest people !”
“Honest people, my foot,” said the enraged
camel-rider. “You think honesty comes by dressing
like well-to-do people. With all your dress, you are
the greatest rogues I have ever met. I shall go to
the king”
Saying this he ran to the king’s palace shouting
all the way in anger but m'ore in sorrow : “I must
have justice ! I will see that I get justice.”
He had run hardly half the way, when he saw
king Veeraserta along with his bodyguards passing
that way for his usual everting ride. The camel-rider
s came straight to the king and falling prostrate
before him, cried : “My Lord, see how the poor
are robbed in your kingdom ! "I am a poor camel-
rider. If I don’t get my camel, I will be ruined.
Help the poor wretch O, Lord !”
“Stop babbling man !” commanded the king.
“Be calm and tell me what has happened.”
' The camel-rider then narrated the whole story
by requesting : “Let justice be done, my Lord. Let
me show you the thieves.”
The king, then accompanied by the camel-rider
and the bodyguards reached the banyan tree where .
the four ministers were still sitting calmly, forget-
ting the whole incident.
King Veerasena was greatly surprised to see
that the accused were none other than his exiled
ministers. He knew they were incapable of stealing,
least of all a camel. . He would have passed his
judgement even without an enquiry. But he thought
that it is not enough that justice is done, but people
must feel and know that justice is done.
So he started questioning the ministers about
the camel. “Your Majesty, we have not even seen
the camel, let alone steal it,” they said. This
’ . * > %
FOUR WISfi MINISTERS 5J
• *
&
appeared even more surprising than the charge
made against them. So he asked : “But how did you
know that the. camel was lame in the hind leg ?”
“This is very elementary sir !” The first
minister explained, “you have only to look at the
camel’s footprints on the wet ground. Your Majesty
can see for , yourself that the animal was unable to
put his hind leg firmly on the ground.”
%
The kmg, his bodyguards and the camel-rider
all looked at the footprintsand found the minister’s
statement correct. >•
“I can see that it’s true ! But how did you find ’
out that he had only one eye ?”
The second minister replied : “Sir. we not only
know that he is blind in one eye, but also that it is
its left eye that is blind.”
“But how ?” the king asked in surprise.
% • * i
a j > 0 Majesty can see
that though there is more grass on the left side the
camel has eaten only the grass on the right side.
theleft^de ^ U ° eye t0 see grass on
The king and others were easily convinced
of this as they saw all the grass on the left side
untouched:
“But how about the tail ? How did you know
that the camel had no tail ? Not from the footsteps
or the grass, surely.” •
N •
“No, Your Majesty l We presumed this from
the gnats lying on the ground ” the third minister '
replied.
*
They all saw the ground strewn with several "
bodies of gnats. They had drunk so much blodd
that they could not moye. The minister explained :
i
I
52
FOLK TALES OF MAHARASHTRA
If the camel had a tail it would have whisked them
off before they could drink so much of its blood.”
The king conceded this point also. The camel-
nder W as so much convinced by now that when the
fourth mimster explained that the camel’s dung
showed that it was ill, he knew that they were
innocent. He apologised for calling them thieves
and rascals,
% \
j ,
w
The king too, who , already knew about their
honesty, was now impressed by their intelligence.
He said to them : “Your deep wisdobi has opened
my eyes. You have wide open eyes by which you
see things which others don’t. Your alert minds
draw lessons from small things. 1 accent vour
advice not to tax people. Will you now be my
ministers again ?” y
0
The ministers bowed their heads and accepted
the gracious offer. The camel-rider was then given
another camel which was not ill, not blind, had
both eyes and a complete tail and all the four lees
sound. ■ ' ®
*
i
0
9
• • A
THREE (CLEVER MEN AND A DEMON
£
0
• ft
0
H E was* known as a ‘Pearl-Shooter’. He was rich
and had a beautiful wife. His chief amuse-
ment was shooting with a bow and arrow at which
he was so clever that every morning he would shoot
through one of the. pearls in his wife’s nose-ring
without hurting her at all.
One day his Wife’s brother came to take his
sister home. He asked her : “Why do you look
so pale ? Does your husband ill-treat you ?”
“No,” the sister replied, “he is very kind, and
I have plenty of everything. But everyday he amuses
himself by shooting one of the pearls in my nose-
ring. I feel terrified that if he misses his aim one
day, the arrow might kill me. I am in constant
fear, but don’t want to displease him, as 'he takes
great pleasure in it.”
* * # • ♦ * 9 1
“What does he say to you about it ?”
• %
“He proudly asks me ‘Is there anyone as
clever as I am ?’ And 1 say : ‘No, 1 don’t think’.”
The brother then told her : “Tomorrow
when he asks you this question, tell him : ‘There
are many men cleverer than you’.”
Next day she did as her brother had taught
her. The Pearl-shooter' became upset by his wife’s
reply and said :
“If there are men cleverer than me as you
say, then I will not rest till I have found them.”
* * . *
0
' /
V
FOLK TAL* oV MAHARASHTRA
• % >
Saying this, he left his "wife, and went on a lone
journey into the jungle. ,
On and on an<J on he went a very long wav,
until he came ton Dig riVer where he saw a traveller
eatmg food. The Pearl-shooter sat by him and
, started conversing :
Where are you going ? For what purpose ?”
I am a wrestler, and the strongest man in
Jecouirtjy, _ the traveller replied, “I can do won-
derful feats of wrestling, lift up hekvy weights and
thought I was the cleverest, but lately I have heard
hinT” a VCry C eVer pearI - sIlo oter and I want to find
■ • _ •
‘‘Then you need not travel further. I am the
man you heard about.”
reply^and'asked 7“ ^ With **
• • • 0
‘‘But what made you travel ?”
“The same reason. To find out men more
clever than me.” '
‘ ,r nien. let us be brothers, and go together”
said the wrestler “perhaps we can find men better
than us. They had not gone very far when they
met another traveller. To their query, he told
them: lama Paridit, a man of learning and
honoured for my intelligence. I thought none was
cleverer than me but recently I have heard about a
Pearl-shootei* and a wrestler and I want to find out
if it is true.”
It is. true. We are the the two men you
seek, they said. The Pandit was overjoyed. He -
said : Let us be brothers. As your homes are
too far aWay, let us go to my house, rest a while
and then put our powers to test.”
The proposal was accepted and soon they
reached the Pandit’s house. y
1
THREE CLEVER MEN AND A DEMON 5S
«*>
r v
- •*.
Now in the Pandit’s kitchen there was' an
enormous cauldron of iron, and twenty-five persons *
were required to lift it. - At the dead of the night, '
the wrestler thought of proving his power. He
lifted it on his shoulders, quietly went down the
river and wending through the deepest part of it
buried it into the sand; Accomplishing this feat, he
came back, 'quietly rolled himself up in the blan- r
ket and went fast asleep. . But as luck would have
it, the Pandit’s wife had heard him. Waking her
husband, she whispered : “I hear footsteps. Some
thieves perhaps. Strange that they should choose a
moonlit night for theft.” So they got up, searched
the whole house and found only the cauldron
missing. They were surprised, that the thieves
should steal such a huge cauldron and no orna-
ments or other valuable articles. Soon, they discov-
ered a man’s footprints starting from the kitchen
upto the river, but none on the other bank. ’ They
deduced that one man with a heavy load had
walked upto the river. The Pandit suspecting the
wrestler licked bis skin and found no salt on it. So
he said to his/wife, “His body smells fresh and wet,
that means h6 went into the river upto the neck.
Tomorrow I will surprise him by ‘ showing that • I
know what he did.”
* s . • k
Next morning the Pandit accosted them : “Let
us go to the river for a bath. I can’t give you
water for bath, because our cauldron has disap-
peared mysteriously this very night;”
% i
• / • •
“But where can it go 7” asked the wrestler
showing surprise. .
“Ah* where indeed !” The Pandit led them
to Tthe river and showed: “See, how far it has
travelled.” *
\ 1
“But who could have put it there ?” The
wrestler asked innocently.
J
F
55 FOLK TALES OF MAHARASHTRA
\
► . • . * .
/ >
; ‘/Why, I think it’s you !” the Pandit said
. smilingly. Then he narrated what his wile had said
and what he did. The' wrestler and .the Pearl-
shooter were both astonished by" the Pandit’s
wisdom. ~ —
6 \
Then the three spent the day amusing and
laughing. In the evening the Pandit said : “Let
' us have a royal feast to-night. You strong man, go
and catch the fattest goat for the meal.”
The wrestler went far into the forest where he
saw many goats grazing and browsing, upon the hill
side. Now a wicked demon saw him and said to
himself : ‘ I will play some tricks with his friends,
if I make him choose me.” So he converted him-
self into a fat goat . The wrestler caught him by
the neck and though he kicked hard was brought
to the Pandit’s ' door.
, i . •. *
When the Pandit saw the goat and the wrest-
ler holding it so tight tljat its eyes bulged from its
head and looked fiery and evil, like burning coals,
he at once knew that it was a demon and said
to himself ; “If I appear to be frightened, then
the demon will devour us all. I must try to inti-
midate him.” So he said loudly :
“O, wrestler, foolish friend ! What have you .
brought ? I asked you ,to bring a fat goat and you
brought only this wretched demon We are hungry
people. My child eats one demon a day, my wife
three, and myself twelve^ while we have only one
between us all.”
• % • • ,
. • ^ •
The demon \yas frightened. He implored :
“OSir, have pity on me. Don’t eat me, I will
bring you as much wealth as you say, if you leave,
me.”
" • 6 •
% m
“But how are we to believe you that you will
comeback?” tfie Pandit shouted.
t
THRBE CLEVBR MEN AND A DEMON 57
— %
“I promise, 1 will come and bring bagfuls of
money. Only let me go.”
The demon was then set free. He went to the
demon-land and repeated; the story to his collea-
gues. He told them, ‘‘Let utf giVe money to this
man who eats twelve demons a day. Else he will
eat us all.” v .
- ! ■ ''' -
After three days when the demon -returned
with the promised money, the Pandit roared : ‘‘Why
are you so late ? V£e are all sitting hungry.” j
“Sir, my fellow-demons detained' me. They
cursed me for bringing money to you. They are
soon going to judge me in, the council for serving
you,” said the terrorised demon* * ; '
“Where is the council to be held ?“
•.V • 1 •. * l ^ . ■
“Far away in.the depths of the jungle, to be,
presided over by the demon-king in his court.”
“We would like to see your king and the coun-_
cil. Take us there.”
% .
“The demon then seated all the three on his
back and carried ihem. On and on and on, as fast
as the wings could cut the air, they went and
reached the heart of the jungle. The demon then
sat them on a tall tree, just over the seat of their
king’s throne. ,
Soon they beard a great rustling noise; Thou-
sands of demons assembled there. Then the
demon-king asked the guilty demon Why he gave
wealth to the mortals and obeyed their orders. The
demon said : “They are not ordinary mortals but
great and4errible ones.”
• * * • ‘ *
“Let us see these people, only then we will
believe...” . '
*- *
- But before the king could finish his sentence,
the Pearl-shooter’s arrow pierced the demon V
ear-ring and ser\t it flying in the air. The king stood
t
\
1
58 FOLK TALES OF MAHARASHTRA
up in fright. But in the twinkling of an eye, the
bough, which they were sitting on, Crashed under
the weight of the wrestler and they fell on the head
of the demon-king one upon another, as if from
the sky. They battered his body with their blows
saying : *
“So be it, we will eat him first and the other
demons 'afterwards.” The demons, hearing this.
- flew away, and the king was allowed to go only
after he 'had promised to fill their house with
wealth., ,
They were brought back to the Pandit’s house,
whose courage' had saved them from being eaten.
The money was divided into three parts. The Pearl-
shooter gave bagfuls of money to his wife after
reaching home and said :
i ■ * * . i
“It’s true, there are men cleverer than me,” and
left shooting pearls thereafter.
f
10
LORD VITHOBA CAME TO
PANDHARPUR
pANDHARPUR is the most popular plate of
pilgrimage in Maharashtra. Twice every year,
in the months ofiAshadha and Kartik , a great jatra
is held on Ekadqshi , the eleveth day of the month.
Thousands of devotees of Vithoba called warkarts ,
set out for the pilgrimage oh foot. They travel in
groups known as dincfis, carrying palanquins . pf
saint poets of Maharashtra and singing abhangas all
the way. This is the story of ho W the presiding
deity of Pandharpur, Lord Vithoba, happened to *
come there.
■ ■; . . *. t
It is said that Pandharpur was founded by
devotee Pundalik. His father Janudeva and mother
Satyavati lived in what is now known as Pandhar-
pur but was then a thick forest called D^hdirvan.
Pundalik was a devoted son but soon after, his,
marriage ho began to ill-treat and » harass hfe
parents. s To escape from their misery, the parents
decided to go on a pilgrimage and joined a group
of pilgrims going to' Kashi. ^
When Pundalik’s wife learnt this, she also',
decided to go. She and her husband joined the ;
same group of pilgrims on horseback. ; The ill-te#
pered wife probably did not want the old coupj^'to
escape from her clutches. JWhile the son and * Sis
wife rode on horseback; the old coupte Wal##.
Every evening when the party camped foi the nigfii,
the son forced his parents to groom the hors^^ wd
v
I
*
60
FOLK TALES OF MAHARASHTRA
&J°‘ her ? e "i a U oi,s - The poor parents cursed the
day they decided to go on a pilgrimage.
* n “ UrSC of t™e, the, party reached the ashra-
mo of the great sage Kukkutswami. There they
spend , a couple of n 'ghts. They were all
lik whn ^ he M <lrch and a11 fel1 asIee P except Punda-
a «<*4 in dirty clothes" enter the ashrama,
° * he ® oor > fe tch water and Wash the swami’s
clothes. Soon after they entered the inner room
of the ashrama, and shortly -came out in beautifully
clean clothes and passing near Pundalik, vanished.
^ Next night he saw the same' sight aaain
Pundalik threw himself at their feet and begged
washed their sins. Their clothes were dirtied by the
^thdbathing piigrims. “And because of your
lU-treatment of your parents,” they said “you are the
greatest sinner. , Their rebuke brought about a
complete change in him and he became the most
lldfi tL° f S °" S ‘ ^ ?? w 4« Parents rode the horses
By their love and affection, the son and his wife
p ensuaded the parents to give up the pilgrimage
and return to Dhndirvan. p * 8
the^f day r m so , ha PPetted- that Lord Krishna,
the King of Dwarka, while feeling lonely, was
reminded of his early days in Mathura. Ite parti-
cular.y remembered his sports-with the milkmaids
die. cowherd boys and his eterm.’ love Radha.
J^ a8h „ sh ? . was dead, Jte longed Mo see Radha
fJpH]?* his d ]\ m * pwers he brought her back
to life and seated her by his side ^ Just then 1 ;
Rukmmi, entered the room . When Radha
aid not rise to pay her due respect, Rukmini left
* . i
<
HOW LORD VITHOBA CAS18 TO PANDHARPUR
v«>
Dwarka in a tage and hid herself it* pandinran
.When the spell of Radha’s charm abated, Lord
Krishna started on a search for Rukmini. He first
went to Mathura thinking that she had gone m there.
Then to Gokul; ‘He played with the cows, the
milkmaids and the eowherd boys. They too joined
m the' search. They went to Mount Govardfian also
itt their search. ^ .-v .■ vi .v <, r: .
% _ i • * *
At last they reached the bank of the
Bhima in the Deccan. Krishna left his companion^
at Gopalpura,;>a tpot just outside the Dandirvan
forest and he- himself entered the woods alone ' in
search of his consort. He at last found Rukmini
and managed to appease her. ;• ,
The reconciled Krishna and Rukmuii set fdrth
together until they came to Pupdalik’s ashrama.
But at that '‘time Pundalik was busy in attending to
his parents. Though he knew Lord Krishna had
#
62
FOLK TALES OF MAHARASHTRA
come to see him, he refused to pay his respects to
the god before his duty towards his parents was
done. He, however, threw a brick outside for Lord
Krishna to stand upon.
Impressed by Pundalik’s devotion to his par-
ents, Lord Krishna did not mind the delay. Standing
on the brick he awaited Pundalik’s convenience.
When Pundalik came out and begged the God’s
pardon, Lord Krishna replied that far from being
displeased, He was pleased with his love for his
parents.
Lord Krishna; then ordered His worship as
Vithoba , or the God who stood upon a brick. An
imposing temple was buift at the place where
Krishna and Pundalik had met. In the inner sanc-
tum stands Krishna’s image on a brick. By his^side
stands the image of Rukmini. She was instrumental
in bringing Krishna to Pandharpur.
HOW PATIL’S BUFALLO TURNED
INTO A COCK
I T is not easy to come across an affectionate and
devoted couple like Janba Patil and his wife
Janai.' With a little property, they led a contented
life with their children in a small village. Everyone
in the village knew them as kind-hearted and
charitable.
One day Janai said to her husband : “I think
we should sell one of the two she-buffaloes we
have. One animal will be enough for our needs.
I now cannot put in the same amount of work as
before at this age.”
“Alright,” said Patil, “I will dispose it of in ,
tomorrow’s market.”
Next day Patil along with the buffalo set out for
the market early in the morning as the market place
was quite some way off. On the way he met a man
with a horse who asked : “Where are you going at
such an early hour, Patilbaba ?”
“To the market, to sell this old buffalo.”
The buffalo looked a fine animal. Looking
longingly at it the stranger suggested : “Why sell
it ? If you like my horse I can exchange it with
your buffalo.”
Patil gave it some thought. A horse is a less
//oublesome animal and the children can have
some fun riding it. So> he said : “Alright, give me
your horse and take this buffalo.”
64
FOLK TALBS OF MAHARASHTRA
9
He mounted the horse and headed for the mar-
ket, but after a few paces he found that the horse
was blind.' 1 Next he met a* man with a cow.
“Well, Patilbaba ? Where to ?”
“I was bound for the market to sell my old
•buffalo. But I exchanged it for this horse on the
way ; but he is blind.” .
“Exchanged it for a blind horse ? Then my
cow is a much finer animal. If you like, I can give
it to you in exchange for the horse.”
T. JT . a ^ . cow looked a fine animal.
Moreover, it involves less work than the horse. So
he took the cow for the horse and went on his way
but he soon discovered that the cow was lame in
one leg.
• Next he met a man with a she-goat.
“On what mission, Patilbaba ?”
“I started in the morning to sell my old buffalo
which I exchanged for a blind horse. Now I have
got this lame cow for the horse. I am going to sell
it.” ®
“Sell it ?, Then my she-goat is much better
than your lame cow. If you want I can part with it
for your cow.”
Patil took the she-goat which he latter found to
be ill. On the last lap of the journey he met a
man with a cock. After a similar talk as before, he
was left with a cock with him.
When he reached the market it was mid-day.
He was feeling very hungry but he had not even a
paisa with him. He had intended to do the market-
ing with the money he would have got for the
buffalo. But on the way to the market the buffalo
had been substituted by a cock.
With great difficulty he could sell the cock f n
one rupee, with which he purchased some eatables
HOW PATIL- S BUFALLO TURNED INTO A COCK 65
to appease his hunger. After washing his hands
and feet he sat under a pipal tree and spreading
his eatables on a leaf started his modest repast.
But before he could eat a single morsel, a man in
soiled and tattered clothes appeared before him and
implored : “Give the poor man some food. I have
not eaten anything for the last two days and I am
dying of hunger. God will bless you.” When
Patil saw the poor man’s condition, he was over-
whelmed with pity. So he gave him all the food
that he had and went home. '
v*
Meanwhile, Patil’s wife had scrubbed the house
neat and clean and cooked the meal foi the whole
family. After completing her daily tasks, she sat
in the backyard telling stories to her children,
waiting for her husband’s return. When Janba
reached home, he seated himself with a tried sigh
on the charpoy in the front room.
On seeing him, his children ran to him, follow-
ed by Janai. Looking at him with eagerness she
said : “Aren’t you rather late today ? I have
been waiting for you with the meal ready.”
“Yes, it is true I am very late. I will tell you
everything that befell me today,” said Patil, “but
give me a glass of water first/*
After drinking the water, Janba said : “I did
not sell the buffalo; but I exchanged it for ahorse.”
“Is that so ? That’s very fine.” said Janai
joyously. “Children can have fun riding the horse.
Of what use is a buffalo ? Well children, go and
tie the horse securely.”
“Wait, wait wife ! I did not bring the horse. I
exchanged it for a cow.”
■ • *
“Wah ! That is even better. The cow is certain-
ly of greater utility than the horse. The children
will now get plenty of cow’s milk. Well, children,
go and tie our cow.”
66
FOLK TALBS OF MAHARASHTRA
“Listen, I was to bring the cow, but I exchang-
ed it for a she-goat. ? ’
“Why, that is also very good. She-goat’ s milk
is said to have medicinal properties. Its main-
tenance is no trouble. Well, boys, take charge of
the she-goat.”
“But listen, 1 exchanged the she-goat for a
cock.”
4
“Not bad !” said Janai with pleasure. “The
cock will wake us up early in the morning. Child-
ren, take the cock to the backyard.”
“Listen, dear ! I had the cock. But as I was
very hungry, I sold it for a rupee and purchased
some food,” said Patil with a smile.
“Fine, very fine,” said Janai. “But did you
have enough food to eat ? Why do we need a
cock ? What matters is your well-being and happi-
ness.” '
“But you know what happened, dear ? I gave
all my food to an old man who came begging to
• - »> 1
me.
“And you remained hungry ? But it doesn’t
matter. Indeed it was a kind act. Never' turn away
u beggar when he comes at your meal time. Now
get up, wash your feet and come for your meal: I
have been waiting for you since long.’
They had a hearty meal and went to bed. Early
next morning when Patil got up and opened the
door, he was struck by what he saw. He called
his wife. In front of their door stood a buffalo,
which was not old; a horse net blind, a cow not
lame, a she-goat and a cock in sound health.
Beside the animals, was lying a leaf with a rupee
on it. They were greatly surprised. Then its
67
how patil's bupallo turned into a cock
meaning slowly dawned on them. His wife stood
awe-struck and whispered :
i '?° J[ 0 H know who could have done this and
why l The begger you fed yesterday was...”
4
“None other than God.” said Patil completing
her sentence. They bowed their heads in deep
reverence. v
12
A SISTER’S VOW
I N a village there lived a mother and her daughter.
They were very much attached to each other. It
v so happened once that both of them became preg-
nant simultaneously. In fullness of time, after nine
months were complete, both gave birth to sons.
But unfortunately the mother died in child-birth,
and while on her deathbed, she called her daughter
to her side and said :
“Look after your younger brother as your own
son.”
The daughter took the mother’s last wish to
heart. She made a solemn vow to God affirming :
“If ever required, I will give up my own son, but I
will protect my brother. He will be my real com-
- panion for life.”
i*
But the husband did not know of her vow. He
had different plans. He could not bear to see his
wife showing greater love to her brother than her
own son. He wished to do away with his wife’s
brother. But how to say this ? So the wily man
thought of a trick to play on his wife. With an
innocent face, he suggested to his wife : “Now that
God has blessed us with a son, let us go to a temple
and make an offering to Him.”
The wife said : “All right.” She then prepared
some Puranroth* as an offering for the God and
* Sweetbread— a special Maharashtrian dish.
a sister’s vow
69
they set forth for the temple. She tied her son to
her breast and her brother on her back. The
husband said :
“If we find the river in flood, drop the child you
have on your back.”
The wife got an inkling of her husband’s guile.
When they came to the river, she swiftly changed
their positions : the brother to the front and the
son to her back. When they were midway in the
river, the husband shouted :
“Drop the child on your back in the river. 1
have made a vow to the Goddess for this sacri-
fice.”
She was stunned for a moment. But there was
no time to think. She had to keep* her word given
to her dying mother and the solemn vow she had
made before God. She remembered her mother
and addressed herself to God : “Let my womb
bear fruit again. I will be ever grateful to you.”
Saying this, she kissed her child and with a harden-
ed heart she released it into the river. Then sob-
bing and embracing her brother tightly she offered
a silent prayer : '
70
FOLK. TALES OF MAHARASHTRA
“O God, let m2 have a child again. Let my
brother be with me for ever.”
4
All the while the husband thought that his wife
had sacrificed her brother to the river. He was
happy to be rid of the nuisance.
Day followed day. Years rolled by. Now she
was blessed with five handsome, healthy sons. Her
joy knew no bounds. Meanwhile, true to the
word given to her mother, she brought up her bro-
ther with great affection and care.
The brother was now of an age to marry. , Out
of several offers received from different villages, she
selected a suitable girl as a bride for her brother.
She clothed her sons with rich garments and her
brother in gala attire. The marriage was celebrated
with all pomp and show. Bedecked in finery and
ornaments, she strutted in the marriage mandap
with a sense of fulfilment. Now there was a dau-
ghter-in-law in the house. The husband was
gratified. He gloated over his son, as he thought,
and his cjaughter-in-law. The wife rejoiced to see
the brother and sister-in-law living in happiness.
But she still kept the secret to herself.
One day while she was grinding jawar on the
hand-mill, she started singing ovis* which speak
of a sister’s prayer for the love and long life to her
brother. The husband, who was nearby, heard
them and asked :
“You are singing ovis to a brother. But where
is the brother ?”
Now she smiled. Now was the time to
disclose her secret, she thought. She then asked
the husband :
“Whose marriage, do you think we celebrated
with such pomp and show ?”
* Couplets in which the folk-songs are usually composed.
a sister’s vow
71
“Why, our son’s ?”
%
. “No, my brother’s,” she replied quietly. Then
she told him all that had happened. The husband,
naturally, did not relish the truth. He was very
much upset. But there was nothing he could do but
to fret and fume at his wife.
/
i
But she did not bother. Later she disclosed
the whole story to her brother, who was overwhel-
med by hw sister’s affection for him. But they con-
tinued to live happily ever after.
i
'
f
i
l
t
I
13
DECEPTION gets its desert
%
A Patil had two wives, Subhadra the elder and
Sunanda the younger. Subhadra came from a
rich family. Apart from her parents, she had four
brothers and sisters. But Sunanda had no relations
of her own on her mother’s side, and no parental
home. On important festivals like Diwali and
Dassera, Subhadra’s brother used to come with
a bullock-cart to take her and the Patil to theii^
place. There the daughter and the son-in-law were
treated to lavish hospitality. Poor Sunanda had
to stay back alone. Where could she go ? She had
no one.
%
On one Diwali, Subhadra’s brother came as
usual to take her and the Patil for the fesitivities.
But the Patil who was somehow ; irritated, refused
to go. So only Subhadra went with her brother.
Now only Sunanda and her husband were left
in the house. - But the Patil would neither take his .
meal nor speak a word. After a prolonged entreaty
by Sunanda, he at last said : “For this Diwali
take me to your parents’ place.” In great anguish
Sunanda replied r. “Where can I take you ? I have
no parental house.” But Patil would not budge
from his stand and only replied : “You must be
having one.” The unfortunate Sunanda was in a
fix. She did not know what to do.
At last she asked her husband to get the bul-
lock cart ready. When they mounted the cart, the
DECEPTION GETS ITS DESERT
73
husband repeatedly asked her : “Which way do
we go ?” What could unlucky Sunanda say ? She
started indicating at random any cart track that
came in view. The cart was going up one hill
and down another. They came to a thick forest
where neither human beings nor birds were in
sight. Big rivers were running through the jungle
canopied by tall trees. By and by they came to a
big banyan tree under which there was an ant hill
which was a cobra’s abode too. When she saw a
big hole she thought that if she could put her hand
in it and if the cobra bit her, that would be the end
of her troubles. She asked her husband to stop the
cart for a while. She got down, went to the hole
and pushed her hand in as far as it could go. Her
hand touched the cobra hood and she felt some
sticky fluid clinging to her fingers. The cobra came
hissing out of the hole. She was sitting with eyes
shut, waiting for the bite. But she opened her eyes
when the cobra addressed her : “Daughter, I was
suffering from a very painful boil on my hood for a
number of days. It burst with the touch of your
hand. I am cured. The pain has left me. I will
ever be grateful to you. Ask for a boon. I will
fulfil it.”
She was overjoyed. She said : “I have no
relations on my mother’s side. I am an orphan.
Now you be my father and brother. My husband
insists that I take him to my parental home. Where
can 1 take him ? I have none, please give me
one.”
“Daughter,” said the cobra, “I will give you
a parental home and brothers. But on one condi-
tion. You should stay there only for four days
and must leave on the fifth day before day-break.”
Sunanda nodded her head in agreement.
“Then you go along this track for some distance
till you come to a well. There you will meet your
74
FOLK TALES OF MAHARASHTRA
DECEPTION GETS ITS DESERT
75
brothers.” With this the cobra crept back in the
hole.
Sunanda asked the husband to drive the cart
as directed by the cobra. Soon they came to a
well near which stood a palace and beyond it a
tidy town. Sunanda told her husband that this
was her home. Hearing the sound of the approa-
ching cart, five people rushed out of the palace to
receive them, addressed Sunanda as ‘sister’ and her
husband as ‘brother-in-law.’ It was all very strange
to the Patil. It occurred to him that he had never
received such a warm reception at Subhadra’s place.
The brothers then escorted the sister and brother-
in-law into the palace.
Sunanda’s sisters-in-law washed her feet
with warm water and gave hot scented water for
their bath. After the bath they were treated to re-
freshments.
On Bhau-Beej day after Diwali, she performed
arati and wished well of her brothers when each of
them presented her with a gold ornament. Her
sisters-in-law showered her with rich clothes. Her
father gave her a pearl necklace. After two days,
when Sunanda and her husband wanted to re-
turn home, they were pressed to stay on for two
more days. On the fifth day they left before day-
break.
When they had gone a short distance, Sunanda
asked the husband to halt the cart. She said that
she would go and bring her necklace, which she
had forgotten, and return in no time. When she
reached the palace, she took the cobra father aside
and asked him : “What will I do if my husband
asks again to come here for next Diwali ?” The
cobra told her : “Do not worry, my daughter. Go
two miles from here and at the second mile both
of you turn back and look. It will solve your
problem.”
When at the second mile they looked back on
the pretext of bidding a final farewell, they saw the
palace and the town in grip of a raging fire. In no
time it was all turned to ashes.
Soon after reaching home, Subhadra the
elder wife also returned from her place. When the
Patil with great gusto narrated to her the story of
Sunanada’s parental home, she was puzzled for she
knew that Sunanda had no one. When Subhadra
questioned her, the guileless Sunanda told her
everything. Subhadra committed to memory all
that she had heard from Sunanda.
Days and months passed. Came Diwali, Sub-
hadra urged on her husband to go to her place for
Diwali. They mounted the cart and the Patil took
the known route to her place. But she forced
him to change it and follow the route given by
Sunanda.
After travelling for some time in the thick
forest, they came to the banyan tree under which
she saw the cobra abode. She asked her husband
to halt the cart some distance from the spot and
wait for her there. She went to the hole and push-
ed her hand inside. When her hand touched the
hood of the cobra, the poisonous reptile rushed out
hissing. When he saw her, he knew the deception
she wanted to play on him. In anger, the cobra bit
her hand and disappeared in the hole.
The Patil found her dead body lying under the
banyan tree.
THE THOUSAND-KILLER
77
14
the thousand- killer
A
man called ‘Hazar-Marya’ lived in R ajpur
x * town. His only pursuit was to kill one thousand
sco!d him and urge him to do some useful work or
at least cut some wood for fuel from the w y
forest, but he always turned a deaf ear. He roamed
about in the town and forest in search o f fl ic^
He would return home for his meal only after
he had killed one thousand flies So, the whole
town knew him as Hazar-Marya.
One day a powerful enemy invaded the town.
The king became panicky. He called his minister
and said 8 : “We have no General, no adequate army
no bows and arrows and not evenenoughelep^
ants and horses. What should we do . Thy
berated over the problem for a long tim ^ Sf
™aid : “Sir do not worry. We have one Hazar-
Marya in our kingdom. Call him and he will tak
care of the enemy.”
The king summoned Hazar-Marya and ordered
him to be ready for war and face the enemy,
soon as he heard the king’s order, he was
struck dumb. Because of fright he could no
utter a single word. The king lost his tempet and
* Hazar(Thousand), Marya (Killer).
angrily said : “Do as you are ordered or 1 will
chop your head off.”
Hazar-Marya started running for his home and
the king ran after him. It was as if there was a race
between the two.
Hazar-Marya told his wife all that had hap-
pened. She was a clever and courageous woman.
She told him in the presence of the king : “Do
not worry. Take up the challenge. You will be
victorious.” The king was overjoyed at this. Hazar-
Marya agreed to do whatever his wife told him. He
thought this was better than losing his head at the
king’s hands.
The following day the king collected an army
of sorts and appointed Hazar-Marya as its General.
With a bow in his hand and a quiver of arrows tied
to his back, he mounted a horse. But his wife
took the precaution of tying him firmly to the horse.
She explained : “I have tied you to the horse, so
that in your enthusiasm you may not leave the
horse and start attacking the enemy on foot.” But
she actually did this in order to prevent him from
leaving the horse and running away. With this
preparation the battle started. The two forces
stood face to face. The arrows went zooming at
each other. The men started falling dead to the
ground. Hazar-Marya' s men ran away from the
battlefield in panic. But Hazar-Marya's horse had
gone berserk and ran like wildfire directly towards
the enemy.
In a panic-stricken state he happened to pass
through a grove of bamboo trees. He clutched the
trees with both the hands so that he could free him-
self of the horse. But he was so firmly tied to it
that he could not come off the horse. Instead the
bamboo trees which were by chance old and rotten,
were easily uprooted and came in his hands. Thus
78
FOLK TALES OF MAHARASHTRA
Hazar-Marya presented a formidable sight to the
enemy. He looked like a mighty warrior, with trees
m both hands charging at the enemy. The sight
put them to fright. The enemies turned back and
fled, leaving the battlefield to Hazar-Marya and his
men.
The king gave him a hero’s welcome. He was
taken out in a processioi on an elephant and re-
warded generously in money and kind.
From that day he gave up his pursuit of fly-
killing. He listened to his wife and occupied him-
self in gainful employment. They lived happily
thereafter.
WHY BIROS HAVE NO HOMES
R ING Risal and his lovely queen ruled over a
small kingdom. One day while they were
strolling in their garden which was some distance
away from the palace, they noticed a pair of birds
sitting on the branch of a tree. “What are these
birds ?” they asked each other. The king said:
“They are eagles.” “No, they arc geese,” the queen
countered.
They had a long argument over it, yet they
could come to no conclusion. Neither would
accept the verdict of the other. Finally they laid a
wager. The king said in heat : “If these birds are
ndt found to be eagles, then I will roam about into
twelve villages collecting rags of cloth, make a
garment of them and, wearing it, leave the king-
dorri.”
s
\
The queen also said spiritedly : “if these bird
are not geese, I will collect rags from twelve
villages, s>w a sari out of them and leave the king-
dom.”
\
Next day four servants from the palace, two of
them king’s atd the other two of the queen, set
out towards the garden. They were to find out the
truth by talking \o the birds. The servants asked
them : \
to ?”
Broticrs, which bird-order do you belong
i
80
FOLK TALES OF MAHARASHTRA
WHY BIRDS HAVE NO HOMES
81
The birds replied : “We are geese.”
The queen had won. Her servants wended
their way in a happy mood, while the king’s men
went dejected. While on their way, the queen’s ser-
vants felt very hungry and they found all their food
finished. As they could not hold their hunger, they
asked for some food from the king’s servants. The
king’s servants said : We are willing to give you
our food on one condition. If you tell in the court
that the birds were eagles and not geese, you will
get everything that we have.”
“We will tell as you say,” the queen’s men
replied.
Then all the four went to the king and told him
that the birds were eagles.
The king had won. He then asked his wife to
fulfil her pledge. The queen, true to her word,
left the palace, begged rags from twelve villages,
and putting on the sari made out of rags, went to
stay in the jungle. j
Now when she left the palace the queen was
pregnant. In fullness of time, a son was born tp
her. A small child in her hands added more misery
to her life in the jungle. But she bore her misfor-
tune bravely.
Thus twelve years passed.
One day a hunter came to their r^rt of the
forest. He was very thirsty but he couU not find
any spring or stream nearly. Whence happened
to see the queen sitting under a tre/ he thought
it very strange that such a beautiful, woman
should be staying alone in a jungle/ Whea he ask-
ed her to give him some water, sl^ pointed to her
hut and said :
The hunter went to the hut where he met the
son and requested him to quench his thirst. But
the son said: “We have no one. We live here alone.
I will give you water on the condition that you take
us with you from here.”
The hunter readily agreed because he was a
rich zamindar and he already felt pity for the
mother and the son.
The son then said some words loudly and
struck the ground with his right foot, and a spring
gushed out of the earth. The hunter quenched his
thirst. He took both of them to his village. When
the villagers saw their master accompanied by a
beautiful woman and a boy, they said : “The mas-
ter has brought a fairy from the forest,” and they
greeted her with great honour.
The zamindar got a new palace built for the
queen and her son. But the queen did not live
long to enjoy the happy turn of her fortune. She
fell ill and while dying, she cursed the birds :
“As you have caused me to be turned out of
my home and made me wander from place to place,
so you too will never live in houses but wander
from place to place.”'
Since then the birds have no permanent
homes and they never rest long at one place. Poor
birds who spoke the truth had to carry the curse
of the queen while the servants who told lies went
unpunished.
Such is the way of the world !
“Go to my son. He will give it.”
16
THE RED LOTUS FLOWER
'T’HERE was a large family of Kunbis* in a village.
A The family comprised of the Kunbi (head of
the family), his wife, three sons, three daughters-in-
law and the youngest child, a daughter in early
teens. With his fields, farms and cattle he was
making a satisfactory living. As the father was
getting on in years, his eldest son was looking after
the affairs of the farms and the family. One day
he said to his wife : ‘‘Look, since both of us have
become old, let us go on a pilgrimage to Varanasi.
We will need someone to assist us. So we will take
with us the two younger sons and their wives. The
eldest son and his wife will take care of the farm
and the household. We will leave behind our dar-
ling daughter to assist the daughter-in-law.” The
wife agreed to the proposal thought she was rather
reluctant to leave her daughter behind. But she
had to concede since the eldest daughter-in-law
insisted on having someone to help her.
Going on a pilgrimage to distant places was not
so easy in those good old days. There were no
proper roads nor conveyances. For people in Vid-
arbha it took about one year for the round trip to
a distant place of pilgrimage. On an auspicious
day they set out on their journey.
Now the eldest son of the house was a simple
soul but His wife was a shrew. While the husband
* Kunbi — Agricultural class in Maharashtra.
1 2 *
THE RED LOTUS FLOWER
83
was busy the whole day in the fields, the wife would
harass the little sister in all possible ways and bur-
den her with arduous household duties. Not con-
tent with this, she used to tell all sorts of lies,
against the sister, to her husband on his return in
the evening. The brother would then abuse his
sister and sometimes even thrash her mercilessly.
The poor girl had no one to look up to. She bore
the ill-treatment in silence.
%
One day the sister-in-law sent the girl to the
tank with a bundle of dirty clothes for washing,
saying : “the clothes should not touch a slab of
stone, nor water, but they should come back
clean.” The girl came to the tank and started
weeping. She did not know what to do. A washer-
man heard her weeping and asked her the cause of
her sorrow. She weepingly narrated the whole
story and asked : “Well, Dhobi Dada, how can I
wash the clothes under such conditions ?” The
washerman took pity on her and washed the
clothes clean for her. She then took the bundle
and went home.
On another day the sister-in-law sent her to
fetch water from the tank. She gave her a pitcher in
which she had secretly struck two holes at the bot-
tom. The poor girl would fill the pitcher but the
water would gush out through the holes. She
started crying helplessly. The frogs in the tank
asked her the reason for crying. On hearing her
story two small frogs plugged the holes by sitting
on them, which enabled her to fill the pitcher and
carry it home.
The third time the sister-in-law gave her a coun-
ted number of grains of paddy to dehusk into
riec. But she told her : “Do not use a pounder.
Do not use a mortar. Not a single grain of rice
should be less.” She went with the basket of grain
to a neighbour’s courtyard and started weeping. In
84
FOLK TALES OF MAHARASHTRA
%
the hope of getting some grains, a number of spar-
rows started frolicking round her. But when they
heard her crying and knew the cause, they dehus-
ked the entire paddy with their beaks. But one
sparrow, could not resist the temptation of swallo-
wing one grain. She collected the rice and gave it
to the brother’s wife. On re-counting the sister-
in-law found one gram less. She abused the sister
and ordered her to bring it back. The girl went to
the courtyard again to search for that one grain
Th P S P^I 0WS soon gathered round her and enqui-
[^ : t^ Wh ^ are y° u J searching for ?” When she
told them, they started making enquiries among
themselves and ultimately traced the guilty sparrow
They made it throw up the grain of rice, which the
girl picked up and brought home.
Now this sister-in-law was still childless. All
sorts of Mantras, poojas , and rituals were of no
avail. One day she went to a village witch for
guidance who prescribed her a ritual : ‘‘Put on a
choli soaked in human blood on a new moon night
^f , at hour of midnight make twenty-one
rounds of the peepal tree near the tank. Do this
and you will be blessed with a child.”
She felt very happy. She saw dreams of be-
coming a mother. But how ? Where could she get
human blood ? She taxed her brain for a consi-
derable time and urged upon her husband for the
sister s blood. The husband did not like the pro-
posal initially. She nagged him daily. He was a
weak man. He also desired a child. Ultimately
he succumbed to her pressure.
Next day on the pretext of taking her to her
maternal uncle, he took her to the forest. But as
he had some soft corner for the sister in his heart,
q! un, ”, ot sum 1 raon enough courage to kill her.
So he hilled a cock, soaked his wife’s choli in the
cock s blood and leaving the crying sister in the
THE RED LOTUS FLOWER
85
forest went home. The wife was overjoyed; but
soon a streak of doubt began to trouble her heart.
She asked him : “I doubt if you have soaked the
choli in your sister’s blood. Bring me your sister’s
head to prove you have killed her, otherwise I will
drown myself in the tank.” The husband felt help-
less. He went back to the spot where he found his
sister still weeping, killed her and brought the dead
sister’s head to his wife. He wife could not contain
herself for joy. She went twenty-one times round
the peepal tree near the tank and threw the sister’s
head in the tank. Soon the head bloomed into a
beautiful red lotus. When some neighbours enqui-
red about the sister she told that she had gone
to her maternal aunt’s place.
Some days later the pilgrims returned home.
After a pilgrimage, it is customery not to return
straight to your home but stay on the outskirts for
a while. So the party camped by the side of the
same tank and sent a message to the villagers about
their arrival. All the villagers turned up to give
them a welcome. The eldest son and his wife were
also there. But the young daughter was nowhere to
be seen. When the mother asked, she was told that
she was at her maternal aunt’s place.
Then every member of the pilgrimage party
took bath in the tank. When the father saw the
beautiful lotus flower, he went near it to pluck it.
But it eluded him by moving from place to place
and saying in a soft voice :
“Brother killed sister.
To soak wife’s choli in blood
Touch me not, Oh father !”
The father was perplexed.
«
When next the eldest daughter-in-law tried
to reach the flower, it darted away and shouted in
anger :
86
FOLK TALES OF MAHARASHTRA
“Brother killed sister,
To soak your choli in blood
Touch me not, O, wicked woman !”
When the same stdry was repeated with every
member of the family, the mother suspected that
there was some foul play. She herself entered the
tank and attempted to touch the flower, but it es-
caped saying :
“Brother killed sister v
To soak wife’s choli in blood
Touch me not, Oh ! my mother.”
The mother then asked : “If I am really your
mother, why should you fear to come near me ?”
At this the lotus slowly came near her. The moment
the mother touched the flower there emerged a
small figure which gradually transformed itself into
the. missing daughter. Everyone was astounded.
When the daughter narrated the whole story,
the father drove the ungrateful son and his wife out
of the house.
17
THE INCOMPARABLE ARCHER
COON after the coronation of Shivaji as Chhatra -
^ pati , a capital complex was built at Raigarh
with three hundred spacious buildings, a temple to
God Jagadeeshwara and a huge tank. The tank,
named Kushavarta , was full of varieties of lotus
plants. It was a quiet evening in the month of
Kartik when Shivaji and his mother Jijabai saw
the tank abloom with beautiful blue, white and red
lotus flowers.
• *
The mother said : “The holy day of Vaikunta
Chaturdashi is very near, Shivaba.”
Shivaji replied : “Yes, Masahib, I have heard
that it was on that day that God Vishnu worship-
ped God Shiva with one thousand lotus flowers.
When he fell short by one flower, he made it up b’
offering one of his eyes.”
*‘It is my desire,” said Jijabai, “that I should
worship God Jagadeeshwara with a thousand white
lotus flowers from our tank on that day.” Shivaji
assured her that he would see to it.
But Jijabai wondered how it could be done.
“It is not as simple as you think. For this Pooja
I want fresh and pure flowers, not only unsmelt,
but also not made impure by the thought of the
Pooja in the mind of the man who plucks them. But.
when anyone gathers the flowers, he will be inevit-
ably thinking of the Pooja to God. As soon as
he touches the flower, he will have unknowingly
88
FOLK TALBS OF MAHARASHTRA
THE INCOMPARABLE ARCHER
89
offered it to ‘Him* in his mind. So what I then get
for my Pooja will be nothing better than the
impure, second-hand flowers already mentally
offered.’*
Shivaji realised the difficulty. It was not
possible for his mother at her age to gather a thou-
sand flowers by herself, and if he had to get them
plucked by another person, he could not find a way
out of the difficulty.
Next day Shivaji summoned his court and
confronted them with his mother’s wish and her
predicament. They heard Shivaji solemnly but none
could suggest a solution.
At last a young man rose and said : “Your
Majesty, it is my humble request to you to see
how I use my skill to gather one thousand white
flowers untouched by hand with stems of the same
length.”
Everyone was curious to know who this rash
young Maratha was. Someone in the court identi-
fied him as Vikram Dalvi of the Maharaja’s person-
al bodyguard.
Shivaji warned him : “Vikram, you know
what you have said. You will have to stand by
every claim you have made. Otherwise, there will
be heavy punishment.”
On the appointed day at sunrise, Vikram
came to the tank with a bow and a thousand
arrows. Shivaji, his mother and members of the
royal family as well as all the courtiers had come
out of curiosity to see how Vikram honoured his
commitment.
After touching the feet of Jfijabai and Shivaji,
he laid himself flat on the ground. Then estima-
ting the distance and length of the stem, he started
felling white flowers with bow and arrow. One
arrow, one flower. His arrows fell like rain. His
concentration was so intense that he was oblivious
of everything around him. He was only seeing
the exact spot of the stem where the arrow had to
pierce it.
When all his one thousand arrows were used
up, he went in a boat and picked up all the flowers
with a pair of tongs. He also collected all the
arrows that were floating on the surface of the
tank.
Shivaji acclaimed his performance, but what
Jijabai said was more to the point. “Vikram’s
concentration was so acute,” she said, “that he was
not aware of anything except a. particular point on
the stem. Neither thought of Pooja nor God could
have touched his mind.”
Vikram requested Shivaji to check if the flower
stems were of the same length. Shivaji asked one
of his officers to measure the lengths of the stems.
He reported that they were of the same length.
Everyone, including Shivaji and Jijabai, were lost in
amazement at this wonderful performance.
Shivaji publicly honoured Vikram by placing
a gold and emerald necklace round his neck with
his own hands.
HOW PARVATIBAI OUTWITTED THE DACOITS
91
HOW PARVATIBAI OUTWITTED
THE DACOITS
I T happened not very long ago, just in the
middle of the last century, when areas on
the outskirts of Maharashtra were infested with
thugs and dacoits. Bands of these marauders used
to raid the villages, terrorise the people and take
away their valuables. The police arrangements were
very poor. The people had to defend themselves
by forming their own resistance groups. But many
times they had to flee their homes in order to save
their lives.
In a certain area a dacoit-chief had become
quite notorious. He held the people residing there
in constant terror. From villages he very soon
spread his activities to the nearby towns. He had
now become so bold that he used to send advance
intimation to the people as to when he would
raid and which houses he would loot. If an effort
was made to remove the valuables from the houses
or call the police, the victims had to face more
severe reprisals. There was thus no way out
but to allow onself to be plundered or offer what-
ever resistance one could by mustering men ready
to fight. But the dacoits would always succeed at
the end.
One day a rich man named Bapurao received
word that his house would be attacked that night.
He was also given the usual warning : “If you try
to deceive by removing the ornaments from your
house or inform the police, you will be given a
blood-bath.”
Bapurao turned pale when he heard it. He
had a big haveli of his own and a brigade of ser-
vants working in his house. His coffers were full.
He was mighty afraid. But his wife Parvatibai
was a very courageous and clever woman. When he
broke the news to her she asked him : “What do
you propose to do ?”
“Surely I am not going to yield to these
plunderers ! I will collect men from the town and
along with the servants give them a fight. What do
you think ?”
“I think there is no use giving an unequal
fight. After all the dacoits are better armed, and
more accustomed to fighting. They will overpower
you in no time.”
“But what else can we do ?” asked Bapurao.
“I think we should outwit the dacoits by some
strategem,” said Parvatibai thoughtfully.
“But how ? Should we hide your jewel-
box somewhere. . . say in the dung-heap in the cattle-
shed ?”
“Let me think,” she said, “till then you do
whatever you think proper. I will fight them in my
own way. Don’t worry.”
Bapurao felt a little reassured and he went
about the town in search of men to help him, while
Parvatibai sat a long time thinking. Soon the
evening advanced. Bapurao came back and told
his wife : “I have collected some twenty men. We
will hide in the woods near the village-border
and attack the dacoits before they can enter the
village.”
Saying this he took four servants and several
weapons and went away.
92
FOLK TALBS OF MAHARASHTRA
It was now dark and the whole village seemed
to lay silent and expecting.
Parvatibai then called her maidservants and
the two cooks and ordered them : “Preparea royal
meal for fifty persons. Time it in such a way
that it should be ready to be served hot by about
midnight.”
The servants were surprised but they went
their way and set to work. Parvatibai supervised
the preparations. When the meal was almost
ready and the plantain-leaves and seats for fifty
persons were laid for supper, she put on a new
sari, and except the mangalsutra , took off all her
ornaments and arranged them in a thali along with
her other jewelry. She then sat waiting.
When it was midnight she heard the distant
noise of horses’ hoofs and sabre-rattling. Soon the
noise began coming closer and closer. Suddenly
there was a loud knock on the door. Her heart
almost stopped beating, but the next moment wear-
ing a calm and eager expression on her face, she
hurriedly went to the door nnd opened it. Before
her stood a large man with a ferocious look, with a
naked sword in his hand. Parvatibai was scaredbut
summoning courage she said sweetly :
“Come in brother. Please do come in.”
The dacoit was taken aback by this address.
But before he could open his mouth Parvatibai
said : ,
“I have been waiting for you and other bro-
thers since I received your message this morning.”
The dacoit stopd staring at her, surprised at
this unusual welcome.
“Please come in. And don’t waste time.
Wash your hands and feet. The supper is ready.
Have a hearty meal before you do your work.”
HOW PARVATIBAI OUTWITTED THE DACOITS 93
The dacoit-chief was still hesitating. But she
made them sit on the seats and ordered the servants
to serve them hot food. While they were eating,
she personally attended each one and pressed them
to eat some more, and not feel shy. When they
finished their supper, she brought the plateful of
ornaments and placing them before the dacoit-
chief told him : “Brother, this is all that I have got,
But I have kept back only one piece for myself.”
She indicated towards the Mangalsutra on her
neck and said : “It is a sacred marriage-token
which I wear for the long life of tny husband and
I pray that you should spare it.”
The dacoit-chief could contain himself no
more. With a catch in his voice he said :
' f
“Of course I will- spare it. We have eaten
your salt and we are never unfaithful to those
whose salt we have eaten. What’s more, you have
called me brother and given me a brother’s wel-
come. From today you are my sister and I will see
that no harm comes to you.” Saying this he retur-
ned the plate of ornaments to her and ordered his
fellow-dacoits to bring in her husband who was
laying on the roadside along with others tied
hand and foot. He then set them free and depart-
ed.
• » »
Great was the surprise of the villagers when
they heard the story next morning. Since then no
dacoit attacked Parvatibai’s house, and even
today the grandmothers of the village tell her story
to their grandchildren.
A BHIL STORY OF CREATION
95
A BHIL STORY OF CREATION
T HE Bhil God— Bhagwan—created the earth and
on the earth he created two human beings, a
male and a female. They lived as brother and
sister and were very happy. They were kind and
generous to other creatures. The brother used to go
out for work, while it fell to the girl’s lot to draw
water. While going to the river she would take rice
with her and feed the fish. This went on for a long
time.
So the queen-fish Ro, very pleased with the
girl’s generosity, one day asked her :
“Maiden, what reward do you desire? If you
have thought of anything definite, tell me. I shall
fulfil it.”
“I have thought of nothing,” replied the girl.
So the queen fish told her : “Through water
and rain the earth will soon be turned upside down.
Ask your brother to make a cage, and keep pump-
kin seeds with you. When it begins to rain
you and your brother should step into the cage,
taking the seeds and water with you. Also do not
forget to take a cock with you.”
Very soon rains began to fail, slowly at first,
then in torrents, as if the heaven and earth had
merged together. For days, the brother and sister
floated in their cage, taking the seeds, water and
the cock with them. At last the rains stopped, the
deluge subsided and they found their cage perched
on a rock. Soon their cock crowed.
And they heard Bhagwan speaking : “Thus
have I turned the world upside down. But has
anyone survived ? The crowing of the cock tells me
of it.”
The Bhagwan himself went to find out. When
he saw the cage, he enquired :
“Is anyone inside ?”
The girl answered : “We are inside— 1 and my
brother.”
Bhagwan found within the cage the young
couple in full prime and strength of life. He asked
them :
“I have destroyed the whole world. Who
warned you of the deluge and gave you advice to
make such a cage ? You must explain the mystery
to me.”
The girl replied “It was the fish Ro who instruc-
ted me.”
Bhagwan called the fish and asked : Was it
you who brought the knowledge to these two /
“Oh no, Lord Father, not I,” protested the
fish.
But when Bhagwan beat the fish, she finally
confessed : “Yes, Lord Father, I did really do it.”
Bhagwan was very angry. He said : “Had
you at once confessed the truth, nothing would
have happened to you.” And saying this he cut off
its tongue and threw it in water. Since then the Ro
fish have remained without a tongue.
Then Bhagwan looked at the girl and the youth
and was pleased with them. He turned the girls
face to the east, the man’s to the west. Then he
96
FOLK TALES OF MAHARASHTRA
again made them turn and face each other. Then
he asked the man :
“Who is she ?”
ma 1 n ’ i°°ked at the girl, was aware
of a very strange feeling in his heart. He replied :
one is my wife.
“Who is this r he asked the girl and
too conscious of a new feeling said :
“He is my husband.”
Then God made them man and wife.
Thus this couple started the human race.
GODDESS LAKSHMl’S ROCK
I N the city of Hyderabad there is a shoulder-high
piece of massive rock jutting out of the earth.
It is commonly known as Lakshmi’s rock. In
Marathwada, which was foimerly a part of
Hyderabad State but now in Maharashtra, there is
a legend about this rock.
In olden days Hyderabad was known as Vasu-
mati Nagar. At that time Hyderabad, though the
capital city of Nizam’s dominions, was not such a
big city as it now is. But by the standard of those
times it was quite a big town. Under the Nizam’s
benevolent rule the people were happy, particularly
in the capital city. Nobody was in want. Even
poor people could afford to feast on puran-poli*
and other delicacies on festival days. It was a
common belief that Goddess Lakshmi (Goddess of
wealth) was staying in the city as the guardian
angel of the dominion.
Later on when sin and evil became rampant,
she, in anger, decided to leave the city.
At the site where the present Char Minar
stands, there used to be a sentry-post. Everyone
had to pass through the post whether going out or
coming in. One day the sentry saw a tall and beauti-
ful lady of a noble family coming towards him.
She was attired in a Maharashtrian nine-yard green
* Puran-Poli—S weet Cake. Highly prized delieacy in Maha-
rashtra.
98
FOLK TALBS OF MAHARASHTRA
99
sari, green choli , with green bangles on her wrists,
a big sindur mark on her forehead, a pearl nose-
ring, and silver anklets on her ankles. The sentry
thought this was unusual. He could not understand
why a lady of a high family should want to go out
of the city alone without any escort. Since it was
the king’s order that no one should be allowed to
leave the city without his permission, the sentry
respectfully asked : “Madam, do you want to go
out ?” She replied “Yes.”
r
“But no one can leave without the king’s
permission,” said the sentry. “I will go and ask
the king. But you must remain here till I return.”
The lady nodded her assent and said : “Yes, I
will,” whereupon the sentry left for the palace.
The sentry ran to the king and narrated the
story. He sought his permission for the lady’s exit.
The king was puzzled. He could not make out
who the lady could be. He was a very intelligent
person. After deep thought he was convinced
from the description of the lady that she was none
other than Goddess Lakshmi leaving his kingdom.
When the sentry asked again, the king said
nothing but chopped his head off with his sword.
Eveiyone in the court was astounded. No one
could understand. The poor sentry had committed
no fault. Why did the king cut off his head? One
courtier summoned courage and asked the king,
whereupon the king explained : “It is Goddess
Lakshmi leaving our kingdom. Since she has pro-
mised to stay at the sentry-post till the return of
the sentry, I made it impossible for him to go back.
Had the sentry returned, Lakshmi would have left
our kingdom and with her our wealth and pros-
perity. Gods are true to their words. Lakshmi will
be waiting for him at the spot. Let us all go and see
for ourselves.”
GODDBSS LAKSHMI’S ROCK
When the king accompanied by his prime
minister and noblemen went to the spot they saw
the lady waiting there. But as soon as she saw
the party approaching, she disappeared into the
earth. A big piece of rock shot up in the place
where Lakshmi was standing.
This rock, known as Lakshmi’s rock still exists
and is worshipped.
21
THE CLEVER WIFE
IN a village in Marathwada there lived a brahmin
named Gundoba Bhat with his family. After his
daily worship of God Vaijnath, it was his practice
to iced some individuals. He was a very pious and
generous man.
But his wife did not approve of his feeding a
person every day She considered it an unnecessary
waste. She calculated that if she could somehow
put a stop to it, there would be considerable saving
whereby they could become rich. But she could
her husband ^ d ° anything a S ainst the wishes of
j
One day while he was on his way to the Vaij-
nath shrine, he met a poor brahmin. After making
KW enquiries he pressed the poor brahmin
to take his meal with him. He said : “You please
t0 e ' * . be back home in no time
r n C L d u ,r 5 8 u he po °j a ” The poor brahmin reached
Gundoba s house as directed. The wife naturally
R ?,tS??L Wh ?* sh ^ w thQ visitor at the door -
: Toda y Is a 8 ood day since my
IS n ,°l h ° me * I . I ? ust ^t rid of the un-
wanted guest by some trick.”
Once the guest was inside, she welcomed him
and offered him a glass of water. She then feigned
weeping and started shedding crocodile tears. When
the guest sympathetically asked for the reason the
wile said sobbing : “It is my husband’s dail> prac-
tice to bring a guest on the pretext of feeding him
THE CLEVER WIPE
101
Then he ties him to a post and thrashes him with
a grain-pounder. That is why brahmins avoid our
house. That is the reason for my sorrow. But I
am helpless. I can say nothing.”
The demoralised guest prostrated himself be-
for the lady and begged her to save him. The
wife then let him out of the house through the back;
door.
When Gundoba, on his return enquired about
the guest, his wife said : “What a strange person
today’s guest was. As soon as he came in, he asked
me for a grain-pounder and a piece of strong rope.
As I was scared by the queer demand, I said no. At
this, the fool left the house in towering rage.”
Gundoba explained : “Probably he wanted
these for some pooja. Give me the pounder and
the rope. I will go and hand them over to him.”
He took the articles and started running after the
guest. Meanwhile the guest, walking leisurely and
wondering about the strange ways of his erstwhile
102
FOLK TALES OF MAHARASHTRA
host, had covered some ground. When he happen-
ed to look back, he saw Gundoba running after him
with the pounder and the rope in his hands. When
Gundoba shouted : “Please wait, I have brought
the pounder and rope for you.” The frightened
guest increased his speed and escaped. Poor Gund-
oba returned home a sorry man particularly be-
cause of the break in his daily practice, but his
wife was happy that she had succeeded in her
trick.
THE STORY OF MANGALA GOURI
A
T Aat-Pat-Nagar there was a king. But he
had no child. A sadhu used to come for alms
to his palace. When the queen used to come to
offer alms, he would refuse and walk away saying
that he did not accept alms from a childless wom-
an. She told this to the king. The king told her to
hide herself behind the door and drop plenty of
gold and jewels in his begging bag when he next
came for alms. She did as told but when the sadhu
discovered the trick played on him, he cursed her
that she would never bear a child.
She caught hold of his feet and begged for
mercy. He said : “Ask your husband to put on
blue garments, and go to the forest riding a blue
horse. Dig the place where the horse stumbles.
He will discover a Devi’s temple there. Ask him to
offer prayers to the Devi who will bless you with a
child.”
He went to the forest as directed by the sadhu
and dug the place where the horse stumbled. He
found a resplendent temple with a Devi installed.
He sat in penance before the goddess for a
long time. Ultimately the goddess was pleased and
asked him to ask for a boon. He said that he had
everything but he was not blessed with a child.
The goddess said : “You are not destined
to have a child. But since you have pleased me
with your penance, I will bless you with one. If
104
FOLK TALES OF MAHARASHTRA
you choose a short-lived son he will be endowed
with all virtues, a son with long life will be born
blind and a daughter, will be a child widow. Now
make your choice.”
The king asked for the short-lived but
virtuous son. The goddess told him : “Behind the
temple there is an idol of God Ganesh and behind
it a mango tree. Step on the generous belly of the
idol, pluck a mango fruit and give it to your wife
to "eat.”
The king did so and his wife in due course gave
birth to a son. The king and queen were overjoy-
ed. They performed his thread ceremony when he
was eight. At the age of ten, the queen wished her
son to be married. But the king said that he had
vowed to marry him only after his pilgrimage to
Kashi. Soon after, the son accompanied by his
maternal uncle set forth for 'Kashi.
«
On their way to Kashi, they came to a town
where they saw some girls playing. Very soon they
began to quarrel among themselves and abuse each
other. One of them said to the fair young girl :
“You naughty girl, you will be a child widow.”
The fair girl promptly retorted: “My mother is a
devotee of Goddess Mangala Gouri. There never
will be a widow in our family. After all I am her
daughter.”
When the uncle heard this he thought : “If I
marry my nephew to this girl, he will be long lived.
But how to bring this about ?”
The uncle decided to put a halt for the day
in the town and lodged themselves in a dharmashala.
It so happened that the fair girl’s wedding was to
take place that evening. But somehow the bride-
groom and his party failed to arrive. The parents
were in a fix. They came to the dharmashala in
search of a bridegroom where they saw the uncle
THB STORY OF MANGALA GOURI
105
and his nephew. They were impressed by the boy.
They took him with them and married him to their
iair daughter at an auspicious hour the same even-
ts* They were made to sleep in the house of wor-
ship near the idols of Shiva and Parvati.
When they had retired for sleep Goddess
Mangala Goon appeared to her in a vision and
told her : “Oh my daughter, a serpent will come
to bite your husband. Keep some milk ready for
the snake to drink and a pot with a narrow
mouth nearby. The snake will first drink the milk
and creep into the pot. Cover the mouth of the
pot with your bodice and tie it down firmly.
Make an ottering of the pot to your mother in the
morning.”
She made the necessary arrangements and
everything happened as she was told by the goddess.
When her boy husband got up, she gave him some
sweets to eat. He then gave her his ring, and joined
his uncle on their onward journey to Kashi.
In the morning, after taking her bath, the girl
made an offering of the pot to her mother. When
the mother opened the mouth of the pot, she found
a precious necklace in it which she placed round
her daughter’s neck.
At this time, the original bridegroom came to
the wedding mandap and sent for the bride to play
some games which are customary at the wedding.
I he girl refused to play with the boy saying, ‘this
not my husband’ as he could not identify the ring.
1 he parents did not know how to find their
son-in-law. So they arranged a feast for brah-
mms in which the girl would wash the feet of
the brahmins while wearing the ring. This went on
lor many days but no brahmin turned up to identi-
fy the ring.
9 m
FOLK TALES OF MAHARASHTRA
106
Meanwhile, the uncle and nephew reached
Kashi where they worshipped the gods, distributed
a lot of alms and charity and obtained blessings of
the holy brahmins. One day the nephew fell down
unconscious, as Yamaduta (messenger of the God
of Death) had come to take away his life. But the
Goddess Mangala Gouri intervened and fought
a grim battle and drove the messenger of Death
away. When the nephew regained consciousness,
he narrated to his uncle what he thought he had
seen as a dream. The uncle said : “It is all for the
best. Your misfortune is over. Let us now return
home.”
On their way home, they came to the same
town and camped on the bank of a tank. When
they were making preparations to cook their meals,
some maid-servants came to them and said: “Please
do not take the trouble to cook your own meals.
There is a feast on at our master’s place. Please go
and take your meals there.”
They refused saying that as they were back
from a pilgrimage to Kashi, they would not accept
food cooked by others. When the maid-servants
reported this to their mistress, she sent them a
palanquin and persuaded them to come to
her house. When the daughter bent herself down
to wash the feet of the guests she recognised her
husband and the nephew identified the ring.
After the meals, the uncle and nephew accom-
panied by the bride left for their home which they
reached in due course of time. The uncle narrated
to the king and queen all that they had gone
through during their journey. The mother-in-law
embraced her daughter-in-law lovingly and said :
“You have pulled my son out of the jaws of death.”
But the daughter-in-law modestly replied : “I have
THE STORY OF MANGALA GOURI
107
done nothing I am a devotee of Goddess Mangala
Gouri. It is all Her doing.” 8<ua
4
It is customary in Maharashtra for newlv
married girls to worship Goddess Mangala Gouri
in the month of Shravana. It if a common belfef
that this ensures domestic happiness in general and
long life to the husbands in particular.
\
23
THE UNWANTED WIFE
*
I N a town on the sea-coast of - Gomantak, there
lived a merchant who had two wives. One was
his favourite. The other was unwanted. The un-
wanted one had a small hut on the outskirts of the
town while the favourite had her palatial residence
in the heart of the town.
The merchant used to go abroad every few
months in a ship in pursuit of his business. Before
going abroad, he used to dole out to his unwanted
wife a few measures of grain, while his favourite
spouse was left in command of the sumptuously pro-
vided mansion. It was the usual practice of the
favourite to deride, ridicule, and even abuse the
other wife. But the unwanted woman was endowed
with considerable pluck and strength of mind. She
bsed to clean and grind the corn on the chakki with
her own hands. Out of the flour thus ground she
would make bhakris* Out of these, she would
make an offering to the Sun-God, then to the sacred
Tulsi plant, then a portion she would feed to
her cow and dog. She herself would eat last with
contentment whatever was left over. If a guest or a
beggar happened to come by she would feed him
too, sometimes herself going without food.
But the ways of the favourite wife were quite
the contrary. No guest or visitor could ever
enter her door. The usual reception for the dog
* Bhakri — Thick coarse hread made of the flour of jawar
of hajra.
THE UNWANTED WIPE
109
was a stick. The left-overs of her lavish meals were
passed over to the temple as offerings.
Once it came to pass that when the merchant went
in his ship on the open- seas, the sea turned stormy
and his ship began to sink. The merchant was in
great panic. He brought to his mind the names of
his pious father and mother, but it was of ho avail.
Then he conjured up the name of his favourite wife
and wished in his mind : “Let the ship come up.”
But the ship sank deeper. Then in sheer despera*
tion he took the name of his unwanted wife, and
Lo ! the ship surfaced. His unwanted wife’s piety
and love had saved him from the disaster. He now
realised her true worth.
When he returned home, he first went to his
favourite wife. He asked her : “What acts of piety
have you done in my absence ?” She smiled and
told him all sorts of false tales. “I fed the guests
with fresh meals cooked by me. I fed the stray
cows and dogs with love and affection. I made
offerings to God.” The merchant apparently took
it as truth and forgot all about the incident. When
he went on another voyage the same thing happen-
ed again. It now made him think. He recalled how
his unwanted wife’s name saved his ship. So he
went to her hut and watched her from a hiding-
place. He saw her making bhakris and stood there
watching what was passing. Her first visitors were
the Sun-God and the Tulsi Goddess to whom she
offered pooja , sought their blessings for the long
life of her husband and served them their portion
of food. She then fed her cow and dog tenderly. In
the meantime a beggar happened to come to whom
she gave alms with a joyous heart. The merchant
was deeply impressed. He came out of his hiding-
place and stood before her, when she was about to
make a meal of whatever was left. When she saw
her husband she was overjoyed. She left her thali
aside, washed her husband’s feet, sat him on the
110
FOLK TALKS OF MAHARASHTRA
wooden seat, drew rangoli round his thali i burnt
an incense-stick and then served him respectfully
her own food. She herself went without food that
day.
The merchant was overwhelmed by her piety.
He took her out of the hut and seating her on his
elephant, marched in a procession to the town. He
heard people standing on both sides of the road
saying : “She is a real pious woman.’* They then
presented her rubies, pearls and gold coins and
grain, whatever they had.
When the favourite wife came to know of this
she rushed to the scene and hurled abuses at the
merchant. The merchant could contain his anger
no longer, so he cut her nose and ears, took her
out in a procession on a donkey and drove her out
of his house. But the other wife took her to her
house and nursed her to health with great care and
affection. She told her husband :
“In my house, love and affection will reign.”
She reaped the reward of her good deeds and
lived happily thereafter.
THE FEAR OF DEATH
| was a fishermen’s village. ‘Many fishermen’s
. fam *fies were living there, building bamboo huts
m the green verdure of the seacoast, since when no
one knew, perhaps since ages, as all that they could
remember was that their fathers and before them
their grandfathers and great grandfathers were
living there.
Everyday they would put their boats to sea
when streaks of red still lingered in the evening sky:
and sail into the purple-red sea till it turned black.
Then they would fling their nets wide into the sea
and sit and wait singing songs they had heard their
fathers sing, till the red to the morning appeared
m the sky. Then they would draw their nets in and
sail back home.
They worked very hard and risked their lives
for catching fish to feed the villages in the vicinity
and the towns nearby.
Sometimes they would go far into the sea to
explore new waters. Some boats would bounder
on the rock and someone would be drowned
Sometimes they would be caught in a storm and
get lost in the sea. Then there used to be weeping
and wailing over the dead in their huts. A sadness
would fill their hearts, but not for long. The wide
expanse of the sea would stir their blood. For them
it was the irresistible call of the sea and they would
set sail again ,
112
FOLK TALES OF MAHARASHTRA
Thus Antonio one day lost his father. His
fellow-fishermen went to his house and told Anto-
nio’s mother that his father’s boat had capsized in
the raging sea and he was drowned; but they had
somehow managed to bring his boat back to the
beach.
♦
Antonio and his mother wept bitterly for his
father for a long while but the next day he gave the
boat to the boat-menders and within a week the
boat was ready again.
In the evening when he was going to the
market for purchasing a new net, he met the land-
lord’s son. Antonio knew the landlord’s son well
and they would always converse whenever they met.
The landlord’s son asked Antonio : “What, are
you purchasing a net ?”
“Yes. Tomorrow I am going in my repaired
boat to catch fish. Are you coming ?”
“What ? In the sea ? Not me, I am scared.”
“Scared ? Scared of what ?”
“Scared of the sea, of course. I heard your
father was drowned in the sea only last week.”
‘‘So what ?”
“Then aren’t you scared ?”
“Why should I ? I am a fisherman’s son.
Fishermen are not afraid of the sea.”
“Now tell me, what was your grandfather ?”
“He was also a fisherman.”
“How did he die ?”
“He was caught in a storm and never came
back.”
“And his father ?” The landlord’s son asked
in surprise.
“He also died at sea. But he was more
♦adventurous. He went beyond Colombo to the
THE FBAR OF DEATH N ^
east coast of the country and became a pearl-
diver. He was drowned. He went in and never
4
came up.”
“Strange ! What sort of people are you ? You
always die at sea and yet go to it again and
again !” The landlord’s son exclaimed.
Now it was Antonio’s turn to riddle the > other
fellow. After scratching his head for a while he
asked :
“I hear your grandfather passed away recently.
Where did he die ?”
“He died in his sleep at the house. He was
old. When the servant went to wake him up he
found him dead.”
“And your great grandfather ?”
“He was also too old and died in his house of
illness.”
%
“And his father ?”
“I am told he had been ill for a long time and
died at the house.”
“My God ! They all died in the house. Even
then you stay in the same hpuse. Aren’t you afraid
of the house?”
The face of the landlord’s son was a sight to
see.
25
THE WONDER BOY
T™ll a ? oId taIe wbicb has passed by word of
mouth for generations in Goa.
. oId well-to-do couple lived in a mansion
rounded hv™ a ? ppli "8 Playground of water sur-
groves. The daughters of the family were married
Thf' 1h“ a “'”‘ l “ d ‘ “ " rn
was simply bored by her loneliness. It was on rare
t “ening 1 ^ ^ husband for *
. was on one such evening, while thev were
drinwJ^ th f balcon y si PP in g feni (the famous
fading light of the evening that they cauvht a
Sga s^a.-a text*
Jr?,,. td sh '
iftas ™ a SiS .?£ i s
a Victim of a cruel stepmother ? That apart, she
THB WONDER BOY
115
was so charmed by his demeanour that she ended
by asking him if he would like to stay with them.
To this he readily agreed. She even forgot to ask
him what type of work he could do. All. she was in-
terested in was to have a son and a servant, some-
one in the house, to relieve her of her loneliness.
Now she did not care if her husband went out
whenever and wherever he liked.
He said his name was Tinku. Was it a Hindu
name ? He. never identified his caste nor religion.
But he so pleased his new masters by his hard work
and ability to handle anything entrusted to him
that they never asked him, not even when he
absented himself from the family Rosary. Every
evening when they assembled for the Rosary, the
banging of the back-door was a signal that Tinku
was out. The old couple felt hurt, no doubt, but
they said nothing as the boy was really a windfall—
areal Godsend. He cost them nothing but his
food, of which he ate so little like a bird. And he
was like a demon for work. They were so hypno-
tised by his skill and adroitness that it never occur-
red to them to ask any question even to themselves,
let alone the boy.
Ask him for firewood and there it was piled
near the fire-place in a trice without your having
even heard the working of the axe splitting the
logs. If they asked him to fetch fish from the
market, which was more than a mile away, it was
there properly dressed in the kitchen, before they
were half-way through the Rosary. They wondered.
But they explained it away by saying that perhaps
the distance appeared too long for their old, tired
feet.
And for the old lady Tinku was full of pranks
and mischiefs like a monkey. She had never seen a
boy like him, not even one of her own sons who
had died at the age of ten and was known as the
116
FOLK TALES OF MAHARASHTRA
naughtiest boy in the locality. When her husband
grumbled at his pranks, she asked : “What do you
expect of a boy so full of life ? Loll in the verandah
and puli away at his cigarettes the whole day long’”
Naughtier Tinku was better company. She felt as
' ii she was twenty years younger.
One day ,^ e sen t Tinku with a message
to her daughter in another village, who had just
given birth to a baby. With no means of modern
transport the two-way journey took at least two to
three days. But the boy who had left in the morn-
ing was back well before nightfall, looking as fresh
as ever. An incredible feat! Did he travel on
wmgs ? Or was it one of his usual pranks ? Did he
really visit the daughter or was he lazing about
somewhere chain-smoking all the while ? But they
could not deny the proof which he had brought
with him— the reply from their daughter.
Some months rolled by and the daughter
t° VISlt her parents for the village feast.
With her came her children, a boy and a girl aged
about ten, besides the new-born baby. With his
tncks and pranks, Tinku soon became the favourite
of the children. In spite of this, there was no slack-
e * ,n « 9, j i® household chores. He would entertain
the children with his magic tricks. He would go
in a dark room and glow like a man on fire : his
eyes would appear to become big shining balls with
an unearthly radiance. Once he picked up the baby
and threw it up and the baby simply vanished— or
so it seemed to the children.
► '
But the daughter did not like these sinister
tricks— though she did not say anything to her
mother as she did not want to hurt her feelings,
seeing that the boy was a great favourite in the
house. The children all the while grew fonder and
ionder of 1 inku. But one day the granddaughter
THB WONDER BOY
117
noticed that Tinku was absent from the evening
Rosary. Being a pious girl, she thought it odd. So
the next day the girl with her brother tried to
drag him to the prayer room. But he refused to
yield. They rolled over him, dragged him by his
hands and feet but with all their might they could
not move him an inch. He seemed to weigh
tons, as if rooted to the earth like a rock. But
the daughter, when she heard this, did not like it at
all. She saw something sinister in all this. In
fact she had never taken to the boy from the very
first day.
Next morning she quietly slipped away to the
church on the pretext of attending Mass, though
her real intention was to consult the priest. She
told him all that she had heard and seen. The
priest thought for some time and resolved to
act,
Armed with holy water and some books, the
priest came to the house in the evening. At the
very sight of the priest Tinku seemed to cower; he
drooped and turned pale. When the priest chant-
ing his prayers, sprinkled Tinku with holy water,
the boy with a shriek of agony burst into names
and vanished into thin air, leaving behind the
offensive odour of burning sulphur.
The poor old lady could not be consoled for
the loss of her companion. She burst into tears,
clasping her hands in anguish.
/(^o 2-
GLOSSARY
Choli
Digvijaya
Ekadashi
Kumkum
Lakshmi
Mahesha
Mangesha
Mangala Gouri
Pavanadeva
Pola
Prasadam
Pooja
Reredos
Taverna
Vithoba
A close-fitting blouse.
Conquest of the world.
Eleventh day of the Hindu Calender
month of the bright and dark fortnight,
generally observed as a day of fasting.
Vermilion powder.
Goddess of Wealth.
One of the names of Lord Shiva.
One of the names of Lord Shiva.
Goddess of wealth and well-being
worshipped on Tuesdays in the month
of Shravan.
The Wind-God.
A festival of bullocks in which they are
worshipped and taken out in procession.
A festival of the farmers.
Offering to God which is distributed
among the devotees.
Worship.
Ornamental screen behind an altar.
Bar or pub.
A favourite deity in Maharashtra, suppos-
ed to be an incarnation of Vishnu.
Worship and ritual
Vrata
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Ek ffota Raja, Maharashtra Rajya Lok Sahitya Samiti,
Editor— Dr Sarojini Babar.
2. Marat hit il Streedhan, Maharashtra Rajya Lok Sahitya
Samiti, Editor — Dr Sarojini Babar.
3. Marathwadyatil Lokakatha, Editor Y.M. Pothan.
4. Lokakatha,. S.G. Date,
5. Lokakatha Wa Lakageetan, V.V. Joshi.
6. Vratanchya Kahanya.
7. Sumbaran Mandile, Dr Sarojini Babar.
8. Marathi Lokakatha, Dr Sarojini Babar.
9. Konkanatil Aitihasik Katha, S.V. Awalaskar.
10. Sanskrit ik Maharashtra Darshan Mala, Vora & Co.,
Publishers, Bombay-2.
11. Myths of Middle India, Verrier Elvin.
12. The Old Deccan Days, Mary Frere.
1 3. Indian Antiquary, XI & III.
14. Charitra Kosha, Chitrav Shastri.
1 5. Modern Goan Short Stories, Edited by : Luis S. Rita Vas.
(Published by Jaico, Bombay. )
16. Private Collection of Manuscripts of Goan Folk Tales,
by B.B. Borker.
17. Flame in the Night, (Life of St. Francis Xavier).
Written by The Daughters of iSt. Paul (Published by
St. Paul Publications).
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